October 2025

Do Spiders Wear Costumes?

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Academic Standards

Reading Objective:

Students will identify four ways that spiders disguise themselves as something else in order to survive.

 

Reading Level:

Lexile: 480L; GRL: J

 

Next Generation Science Standards:

2-LS4-1: Observe Plants and Animals in Compare the Diversity of Life in Different Habitats

 

Vocabulary:

survive, fangs, antennas

Use these questions to check students’ understanding and stimulate discussion:

1. How does the ladybug mimic spider stay safe?

Birds don’t eat it, because ladybugs taste yucky.

2. How does the crab spider get food?

It pretends to be a flower, so bees come and it eats them.

3. How does the ant-mimicking jumping spider get food?

4. How does the bird-dropping spider stay safe?

Go online to print or project the Reading Checkpoint.

 

  • When a spider uses a disguise to trick other animals, scientists call this mimicry. The spider mimics, or acts like, something else to help it survive.
  • Spiders aren’t the only animals that use mimicry. The mimic octopus pretends to be a jellyfish, a sea snake, or a flounder. It can change its shape, color, or the way it moves to scare off danger.

Materials: Pencils, markers, copies of the skill sheet.

Overview: Kids use their imaginations and what they have just learned to create a disguise or “costume” that will help a spider get food, hide from predators, or both!

Directions:

  1. Before you pass out the skill sheets, remind students that they read about spiders that pretend to be something else. The spiders do it to get food or hide from animals that want to eat them.
  2. Tell students you want them to create a disguise for a spider to help it hide from danger or trick insects so that they’ll come close and get eaten.
  3. Brainstorm as a group to get creative juices flowing. What should a spider look like or act like to make a tasty insect come near? Or how could a spider disguise itself as something gross or hard to see so that birds don’t eat it?
  4. Pass out the skill sheets and send kids to their workstations to create spider costumes. The spiders are counting on them!.
  5. Kids can draw and label their designs. If there’s time, they can share their drawings with the class.