The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle is a beautifully illustrated book about a spider who has no time to play. Have you ever been so busy that you breeze right past others. You forget to stop and speak. You are moving so fast you miss the fact that others need you or would like to help you. We have all been there. Life moves fast. We have to finish things. We can’t just ignore all of our responsibilities and play all day.

This book teaches us how to be determined. How to keep working even with distractions. But, sometimes we need to stop. We need to listen. We need to play. Our children, spouses, loved ones, and friends need us. This book opens a door for communication with our children about working hard and balancing our time. Encourage your children to work hard and accomplish their goals as well as encouraging them to play and have fun.

Eric Carle uses hand-painted paper to create very colorful and textured animals and scenes.

Activities:

1. Spider and her web
   • Glue a medium size puff ball to a large puff ball
   • Cut 2 black chenille stems in half
   • Fold cut chenille stems in half and glue two to each side of the large puff ball.
   • Glue goggle eyes to medium puff ball or use 8 drops of glue to create eyes
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   • To make web, use black construction paper
   • Use glue to draw glue line like a web across black paper.
   • Attach one end of a white thread to spider and the other end to black paper.
2. Making a collage animals.
   • Print free animal coloring pages or draw your own animals
   • Use several sheets of different color construction paper
   • Cut or tear construction paper into shapes
   • Glue pieces onto paper to fill in animal.
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3. Talk to kids about hard work and completing tasks.
4. Talk to kids about balancing work and play.

Benefits of art activities:

1. Cutting, tearing, gluing help develop fine-motor skills.
2. Using paper to create animal collages help children see shapes and colors of objects in nature.
3. Finishing each project helps children learn to finish activities.
4. Allows time for family to talk and work together.

Outschool Story Time and Art

I am offering a story time and art club on Outschool.com. If you are interested in sharing stories and creating art with your children, check out my class here. I will read a new story each week and walk you through an art activity that goes along with that day’s book.

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