Sitting on the colored carpet squares, listening as the teacher read, I fought back tears. After all she had done for Wilbur, Charlotte was gone, never to see her babies be born in the spring.
Charlotte’s Web was one of my favorite books growing up, and I couldn’t wait to share this timeless classic with my own kids.
My kids fell in love with Wilbur and Charlotte, and we had fun discussing character traits while doing this Charlotte’s Web activity.
Charlotte’s Web is a wonderful read-aloud book for several reasons:
- The story and the characters pull the reader in.
- It is a story of friendship, loyalty, and love.
- And I love how Charlotte introduces new words to Wilbur (and the reader) throughout the story.
- The book is also great for teaching about character traits.
Charlotte’s Web Activity
Charlotte uses her web to bring attention to how she feels about Wilbur. Her words make Wilbur feel differently about himself.
Charlotte’s Web is a great book to teach kids on how our words can affect others.
We decided to create our own webs and add positive words to describe our pets in our activity. In the classroom setting you could choose to have students find words to describe a friend or family member.
Charlotte’s Web Craft
- White Craft Paper
- Black Colored Pencil
- Old Magazines with Plenty of Advertisements
In the book when Charlotte first writes a word on her web, she keeps the existing radial lines and removes the orb lines of the web.
We discussed what each of those terms meant as we drew our own spider webs on white paper.
I showed them how to use a ruler to create those straight radial lines, intersecting them all at the center of the web. Then they free-handed straight lines connecting each radial line to form the circling orb lines.
Once the webs were drawn, we searched old magazines for advertisement pages.
We chose to focus on the ads for this kids craft because they always have positive words, usually written in a large font, which makes it quick and easy to scan and find the words or letters you are looking for.
We found multiple ads using the word “best;” we were also excited to find words like “super” and “great.”
Whenever possible they used the words they found in the ads. If they couldn’t find the words they wanted, they searched for each letter to carefully cut out and glue in place.
My daughter had fun thinking of just the right words to describe our sweet kitten.
My son chose words that accurately describe our dog.
They enjoyed this simple Charlotte’s Web activity, but I worried about how each of my kids would react at the end of the book.
Would they cry? Would they still like the book even if one of the characters they had grown to love died?
I needn’t have worried.
Not only did they like the book, but they loved the kindness that Charlotte showed her friend.
And the end, where three of her children chose to stay with Wilbur, left them happy. And I was able to wipe away my own tears without them noticing.
If you liked this Charlotte’s Web craft, you may also like:
- Charlotte’s Web-Inspired About Me Craft from Steam Powered Family
- Paper Plate Spider Web & Pom-Pom Spider (Just like Charlotte!)
- 25 Dr. Seuss Book Activities
- Fun Ways to Practice Spelling Words
Originally published September 19, 2016.