InstaScience at Elemental Blogging

Your home for digital nature study resources and teaching science at home tips!

A Gift from Elemental Science

Living Books for Science Sign up below to receive weekly tips & tools for homeschool science and we'll send you a FREE copy of Living Books for Science: A Step by Step Guide!
  • Home
  • About
    • Speaking
  • InstaScience
  • Homeschool
    • Experiments
    • Science Fair
    • Teaching Tips
  • Printables
  • My Books
  • Elemental Science
  • Contact
You are here: Home / biology / Have you seen the amazing work of spiders? {Spider Webs}

Have you seen the amazing work of spiders? {Spider Webs}

October 28, 2016 by Paige Hudson

Learn about spider web in an instant with this information, activity, and free printable!

I just finished reading Charlotte’s Web to my youngest, and like most children, he was captivated by the spiders incredible spinning skills. Every time we read this classic we become keenly aware of the spiders in our little patch of earth. And that’s how we came to spot this dew-kissed spider web carefully set between two trees in our backyard.

Spiders spin their webs in all different kinds of shapes and sizes with a single purpose in mind – to catch food. It turns out that spiders don’t have very good eyesight, but they are able to detect the vibrations that are created when their prey is trapped in the sticky threads of their web. Once they detect their catch, they run over bite their victim and surround it with silk, saving their meal for another time.

The silk that a spider can spin is super strong and just a bit sticky, thanks to tiny droplets of glue that the spider deposits on it. The silk is made of a protein so complex that scientists have not been able to reproduce it in the lab. Spiders will often eat their webs to recycle the material, which gives them the energy to produce another web.

All spiders spin silk, but not all spiders spin webs. The spiders that do spin webs have special claws at the tips of their legs so that they can swing from place to place as they form their web. They also secrete an oily substance that helps to keep the spiders from sticking to their own webs.

Fun Fact – The strongest silk belongs to the Darwin’s Spider, which spins threads that are ten times tougher than the ones used to make Kevlar!

More Homeschool Science Helps

  • This time last year, we shared about basalt.
  • Don’t miss these Crazy Colors {A Halloween Science Activity} wherein you can teach your kids about acids and bases.

Links to Research

  • 9 Amazing Facts About Spider Silk  
  • 84 Fun Facts About Spider Webs 
  • Spider Facts from Kidzone 
  • Spider Facts from Fact Retriever 
  • {Video} Spider Web Construction in Slow Motion

Filed Under: biology, instascience, nature study, teaching science at home Tagged With: fall, insects, instascience, invertebrates

Welcome to the Elemental Blogging Laboratory

 
profile picWelcome to the Elemental Blogging Laboratory, a.k.a. the Eb Lab. Here at the lab, I have the pleasure of sharing with you all my passion for mixing up solutions for homeschool science! My name is Paige Hudson. I am a homeschooling mom and science curriculum writer for Elemental Science.
 
Why do I call this blog the "Eb Lab"? It is because I am scientist at heart and by profession, so it pretty much spills into everything I do. I love to share tips and tools with fellow educators as they seek to share science with their students!
 
That is what this blog is all about. One homeschooler to another, sharing her area of expertise, seeking to support you as you teach your students about the wonders of science.
 
So, grab your lab coat, notebook, and goggles...well maybe not the goggles because let's face it nobody looks good in those...and you probably don't have a lab coat lying around your house either...
 
So, grab a cup of coffee and notebook, and head on in to the Eb Lab to gather tools for homeschool science, tips for homeschooling, and the latest Elemental Science news!
 
Enter the Eb Lab

SIS advert

SIS advert blog

Volume 3 advert

Sassafras v3 ad

Copyright © 2025 · Prose on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in