30 Splendid Spider Videos for Kindergarten
Spiders are a popular October theme in kindergarten because they are the perfect balance of spooky and science. I’ve rounded up this set of spider videos for kindergarten to help you engage your students during this crazy exciting month! These videos will deepen your students’ understanding of arachnids, give them opportunities for music and movement, and help you integrate your spider unit into math and reading!
(I previewed a lot of spider videos for this post and chose not to include a whole bunch because they seemed a tad inappropriate for the classroom for one reason or another.)
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Scroll on to see a swarm of spider videos for kindergarten! I’ve categorized the videos to help you quickly find what you’re looking for.
I’ve also got collections of pumpkin videos and bat videos that you might find useful during the Halloween season! You can also find some fun spider facts here!
Spider Videos that Teach Science Concepts
This first set of spider videos will inform your students about spider characteristics, habits, diets, life cycles, and more!
From SciShow Kids, this first video packs a lot of arachnid info into a short video about why we should find spiders fascinating instead of scary! This video includes neat imagery and footage that supports the narration and makes it easy to understand. These SciShow Kids videos are worth watching a couple of times because they are so full of facts!
From All Things Animal TV, here’s another informational mini-documentary about spiders. I particularly like the footage of a spider spinning a web in this video. The closeup shots make it easy to see the spinnerets and how the spider uses her back two legs to control the silk. Really cool!
I’m including this next video even though it might be somewhat more appropriate for older students than for kindergarten. If you have students who crave more information and obscure facts, this is the video for them. You will likely learn some new things, too! Though this 12-minute video from MyWildBackyard is kid-appropriate in language, it does include live footage of spiders catching and eating prey, which may be a little unsettling for sensitive viewers. Also, toward the end, there is a section about black widows that might warrant an added reminder about the potential dangers of handling spiders (and other wild creatures) and how they are best left undisturbed.
From The Ranger Zak Show, this video closely examines the difference between insects and arachnids in a really fun, kid-friendly way. In addition to exploring some neat characteristics of arthropods, this video also shows the process of Ranger Zak overcoming his fear of spiders by learning more about them. At 18 minutes long, The Ranger Zak Show is a little more in-depth than some of the other spider videos featured here!
In this full-length Magic School Bus (“Spins a Web”) episode, the children are transported into a movie about a giant praying mantis to learn about the ways spiders trap insects.
Following the Magic School Bus episode, students will enjoy watching some spider videos that show how actual spiders trap their prey. This 3-minute BBC video shares beautiful narrated footage of a Darwin’s bark spider building a web that spans an entire river. Darwin’s bark spiders make the largest known orb webs and the process is really fascinating to watch!
Here’s a slightly gruesome, but really clear and educational, video of a trapdoor spider catching an insect.
Another full-length episode, Wild Kratts “Secrets of the Spider’s Web,” is perfect if you have a little time to fill. In this episode, the Kratt brothers head to the rainforest to explore how spiders make such strong silk.
This short and catchy song from National Geographic Kids and Parry Gripp tells about jumping spiders as viewers watch footage of one hunting a bee. Great for an informational brain break!
This short animated Through the Woods episode follows Rider and his dog as they discover a spider web in the woods and learn that spiders spin webs to catch their food. This little video models a respectful and playful relationship with nature.
This short video from Sesame Street will give your students a giggle and will help them remember the word “arachnid!”
Learning about spiders? This informational unit includes an eye-catching PowerPoint and a bunch of printable material!
Spiders Unit with PowerPoint
This “All About Spiders” thematic unit includes materials to help you integrate learning about spiders into science, literacy, and math in your primary classroom. You will download a zipped folder containing a PowerPoint File and a PDF.
Digital Spider Activities
This set includes two digital spider activities that are pre-loaded into three different digital learning platforms. Each activity includes a short nonfiction ebook (read-aloud) followed by interactive comprehension activities. A great addition to your pumpkins unit, these activities include information on “What Spiders Do” and “Parts of a Spider.” After you purchase this resource, you…
Spider Videos that Teach Math Concepts
These spider videos will help as you integrate your spider theme into your math instruction!
Lucas the Spider is an adorable anthropomorphic jumping spider. In this video, children are invited to count various objects in a Lucas cartoon.
This spider song by Poco Drum would be a fun math brain break. The lyrics include counting eight several times (legs and eyes). The chorus lends itself to a movement break!
Kids will have fun counting to 100 and getting some exercise while watching this video from Superhero Sing Along Songs. With Spider-Man leading the way, viewers do motions and exercises in groups of ten as they count from one to 100.
A takeoff on “Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed,” This “Five Scary Spiders” song can help children with counting to five (backwards, too) and with beginning subtraction concepts. Consider writing the words on sentence strips and replacing the numbers as the song counts back.
Find a spider math craft idea in this, “Eight Engaging Activities for Your Spider Unit” post!
Spider Videos that Support Literacy
Bring your spider theme into your literacy block with these spider videos that support literacy concepts!
The Cool School channel has such great kid-friendly videos. Here’s one from their nursery rhyme series that tells the story of “The Itsy Bitsy Spider.” Consider writing this rhyme/song on chart paper and using it as part of your shared reading activities!
And while you’re rhyming with spiders, you can follow up with this cute sequel video! (Also, both of these two Cool School Itsy Bitsy Spider videos end with a moral—a great opportunity to talk about which kinds of stories have morals at the end!)
I can’t stop sharing this Cool School content! 🤣 This next video ties in a bunch of nursery rhymes and even includes Peter (who you may have seen in my pumpkin video collection). Lots of rhyming fun here!
Working on vowels? This letter I video also features good old Itsy Bitsy!
One final Cool School nursery rhyme video (they must really like spiders over there!) is “Little Miss Muffet.”
Here’s something different! “The Spider and the Fly” is a poem that was written by Mary Howitt almost 200 years ago. Quite some time later, Tony DiTerlizzi made her poem into a children’s book with his beautiful illustrations. Here, Mr. DiTerlizzi reads the book aloud. (You can find the book on Amazon here.) FYI, this is a spooky story and the fly does not make it out, in the end.
This next video is also a read-aloud of an old story. Anansi the Spider is a folk character from Ghana and there are lots of stories about him. This adaptation, by Gerald McDermott, is read aloud by Ms. Paula. You can probably find other Anansi stories in your school library and you can find this one here on Amazon.
Spiders Fiction Vs. Nonfiction
This Spiders Fiction Vs. Nonfiction set will help you integrate your spider theme into language arts with a short video and two printable books.
Spider Videos with Art Ideas
A thematic unit wouldn’t be complete without some opportunities for arts and crafts. Here are a few videos with spider ideas you can use with your class!
Directed drawings are always fun and I love the way Art for Kids Hub makes such kid-friendly videos! This tutorial shows students how to make a cartoon spider with a web.
Here’s a cute craft idea! This could be a fun one to have at a station at a fall festival or party where you have adult helpers. Otherwise, I’d think you would want to complete the project in a few stages (or buy paper plates that are already the color you want!).
This spider craft looks doable and fun for kindergarten (though I would probably skip the stick).
If you celebrate Halloween in your classroom, this would be an easy, exciting craft to do at your party!
More Spider Videos: Just for Fun!
This last set of spider videos is great to pull from for brain breaks!
Here’s a cute Halloween version of “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” by Super Simple Songs. Kids will enjoy singing along with this and watching the animation.
Perfect for cooling down after recess or for a quiet rest time, this calming song about perseverance will keep kids interested for a full five minutes! (You can find more episodes of this sweet but short-lived 1991 spider cartoon from the BBC here on YouTube.)
Get the wiggles out with the Spider-Man Freeze Dance video from Coach Corey Martin. Make sure kiddos have plenty of personal space for this one. (Warning: This video includes mild superhero violence.)
Finally, kids can join Bella in singing The Eency Weency Spider and doing the hand motions to go along with the song.
I hope these spider videos help you with planning and implementing an awesome spider theme in kindergarten!
Head over to this post to read about a fun Spider Fine Motor Skills Freebie!
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