Prelude: Spiders Who Spin Fancy Webs

Here's an lesson in the making that I'm really excited about!  Last week, when I was working hard to figure out the basics of stars and their relationship to math, I ran across a really helpful description of how to make and notate stars.  One of the images the author uses is that of spiders spinning webs, one line at a time, between or across points.

Part of the reason I'm looking into stars is because I think there's real educational potential in this kind of inquiry for all ages, including young children. Most of the material I've run across seems to target fifth graders and above.  But, after experiencing how helpful the spider analogy was for me I thought, why not tell my seven year old a story about a spider who wanted to weave a really fancy web and have her spin some webs of her own?  The kid is pretty excited to be a spider in the near future, especially since the project has morphed into a lot of hammering and tons of embroidery floss.

Today I was in the middle of creating the framework for each web (six through ten points) when my daughter ran to get her rubber bands out of the math basket and started make designs (hers on the left, mine on the right).  Even thought it wasn't planned, I thought this was a really cool way to explore the circular structures and posts/points before moving into a more formal activity.











Stay tuned for more developments, but in the mean time, I've got a new page on Facebook. I'd love it if you'd pop over for a visit. Check it out here!