Word of the Week
Arachnophobia (uh-rack-nuh-foe-bee-uh): An intense fear of spiders! This word has French and Greek roots. It comes from the French word arachnide meaning "spider" and the Greek word phobia, meaning "fear of."
Bonjour and Yassou!
"The itsy-bitsy spider climbed up the waterspout . . ."
Such a fun and cheerful childhood poem. The question is, how do you feel when you think of spiders? Do you find them intriguing, creepy, astonishing, or do you suffer from arachnophobia?
As a young girl, I loved the book Charlotte's Web. If you're not familiar with it, you should give it a whirl. It's about a very clever spider who helps save her best friend!
I'd have to say that I find spiders to be astounding. Here are some of the reasons why . . .
Spiders are not insects. They are arachnids.
There are over 45,000 known species of spiders!
A spider's body has two main parts: the cephalothorax and the abdomen.
Spiders have eight legs.
They also have eight eyes. Two are larger in the front, with the remaining smaller eyes on the sides of their head to detect motion.
Spiders have blue blood.
Female spiders lay eggs and carry them around in an egg sac.
All spiders make silk, but not all spiders spin webs.
It takes about an hour to build a web, and spiders usually create new webs daily!
The average adult tarantula measures five inches! Woah.
There are so many more astonishing facts to learn about spiders. Do a little digging and see what you can learn. On to our "tasty" tarantulas!
What's more fun than creating a creepy AND delicious treat? Read on to learn how you can create these harmless little guys.
You'll need: small pretzel sticks, small chocolates like Whoppers or Milk Duds, melting chocolate, and parchment or wax paper.
How it's done:
Follow instructions to carefully melt your melting chocolate.
Lay out a piece of parchment paper to set your chocolate goodies on to dry.
First attach two of your chocolates together using a bit of melted chocolate. Set them aside to let them set.
Snap your pretzel sticks in half, coat them with chocolate, then attach them together to form a V. You'll need to create 8 of these for each spider. The angle of the V will make your spiders taller or shorter.
Once your all your pieces have set, you'll use more melted chocolate to attach four legs to each side of your spider's body. Be sure to let them dry before setting them out.
I can assure you that these will be a huge hit! They are simple, delicious, and make great decorations!
Stay kind . . .
Gram