Itsy Bitsy Spider experiment!

This week continues nursery rhymes at school and I am still doing math and science, so I asked my kids "Why don't spider's stick to their own webs?"  They came up with silly answers, but then I explained that spiders have a special oil on their legs that prevents them from getting stuck.  To prove my point, I gave each child a sheet of contact paper and had them walk their fingers across it like a bug.  They of course stuck!  I then had each child dip their fingers in olive oil and try walking their fingers across the contact paper again.  This time the oil prevented them from sticking, like a spider. :)  They love getting their hands messy and I love hands on teaching, so this was super fun!

Sticky bug fingers!

More sticky bug fingers!

Oily spider fingers!

Oily spider fingers!