# Bag of Wonder: The Spider > Watch a garden spider spin her web, thread by thread. Wobble, wobble! A free interactive 3D exhibit for children aged 2 to 6, from Curiosity's Child in Troy, Michigan. - Interactive exhibit: https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/spider/ - Ages: 2 to 6. The story is pitched at the youngest; the tap cards give older children more to chew on. - Cost: free, with no sign-in, no ads and no tracking. - Works on: phones, tablets and computers, in a web browser. Sound on for the narration. ## What it is Interactive 3D garden orb-weaver spider and her web. A time slider follows the spider letting a silk thread drift across on the breeze to make a bridge, building the frame and the spokes, and laying the sticky spiral from the outside in, strand by strand; then she waits at the hub, a fly is caught and wrapped, dew sparkles on the web, and she eats the old web and spins a new one. A second slider pulls the spider apart (eight legs, the two body parts, eight eyes, pedipalps, spinnerets) and the web apart (frame threads, spokes, sticky spiral), with labels; tapping a part shows a child-friendly fact. How to play: press play to hear the story (read aloud in Kelly's voice, with the words on screen). Slide the time slider back and forth to see any part again. Slide "Pull apart" to see what is hidden inside. Tap any glowing button for a fact. ## The story 1. Good morning, poppets! In a sunny garden, a wasp spider, a kind of garden spider, sits on a tall stem. Today she will make a web. 2. She lets out a thin silk thread, and the breeze carries it across, until it catches on another stem. Now she has a bridge! 3. Next she makes a frame of strong threads, and then the spokes, out from the middle like the spokes of a wheel. 4. Now the sticky part! Round and round she goes, from the outside in, laying a sticky thread. Round and round and round. 5. The web is finished. She waits in the middle, very still, with her feet on the threads, feeling for a wobble. 6. A little fly lands on the sticky thread, and sticks. Wobble, wobble! Dinner is caught. She wraps it up in silk to eat later. 7. The next morning, the web is covered in tiny drops of dew. They sparkle in the sun like a necklace. 8. When the web gets old, she rolls it up and eats it, so none of her silk is wasted. Then she spins a brand new web! ## The parts, and what we tell children These are the tap cards, word for word. - **Eight legs**: A spider has eight legs. A fly or a bee has six, so a spider is not an insect. Each foot has tiny hooks for holding on to the silk. - **The front part**: A spider's body has two parts. The front part holds the eyes, the mouth and all eight legs. Its big name is cephalothorax. - **The back part**: The round back part is the abdomen. Her silk is made in here. A wasp spider's is striped yellow and black, like a wasp. That's how she got her name! - **Eight eyes**: Most spiders have eight little eyes at the front. A garden spider can't see very well, so she feels the world through her feet. - **Spinnerets**: The silk comes out of tiny taps at the end of her body, called spinnerets. Inside her the silk is runny. It turns into a thread as she pulls it out. - **Pedipalps**: Two little arms beside her mouth. She uses them like hands, to feel things and to hold her food. - **Frame threads**: Strong threads round the outside hold the web up, tied to the stems. Spider silk is stronger than a steel thread of the same weight! - **Spokes**: The spokes go out from the middle, like the spokes of a bicycle wheel. They are not sticky, so the spider can walk on them. - **Sticky spiral**: This thread goes round and round, dotted with tiny sticky drops. It stretches like elastic, so a flying bug doesn't bounce off. - **Little fly**: A fly has six legs and two wings. Garden spiders help the garden by catching flies and other little bugs. - **Dew drops**: On a cool night, water from the air makes tiny drops on the web. That's dew. When the sun warms up, it dries away. ## Getting the science right What we checked, and the myths we steer around: - Spiders are not insects: they have eight legs, two main body parts and no antennae or wings. - The spider on the page is a real scan of a wasp spider (Argiope bruennichi), a close cousin of the yellow garden spider found in Michigan gardens. - An orb web goes up in order: a bridge thread first (often carried across on the breeze), then the frame, then the spokes, then the sticky spiral, laid from the outside in. - Silk comes out of the spinnerets at the back of the spider's body. - Garden spiders have eight eyes but do not see well; they feel for a wobble in the threads through their legs. - Many orb weavers eat their old web and reuse the silk to spin a new one. - Gentle wording: the story says the fly is wrapped "to eat later" and does not dwell on it. Garden orb weavers are shy and not dangerous to people. ## How to use it with children Watch the whole story with the sound on, then slide back to the spokes and count them together. Pull the spider apart and find the spinnerets, the eight eyes and the pedipalps, her two little "arms". Ask more than you tell, and let the child drive. Then step away from the screen: on an early autumn morning, look for orb webs in the garden when they are covered in dew. Look, don't touch: point and count the spokes. Back inside, draw a web: a frame, spokes from the middle, then a spiral round and round. A few minutes together is plenty. The exhibit is a doorway to the real thing, not a replacement for it. ## Credits and licenses The real scans, maps and photographs belong to their makers, under the licenses below. The words, story and code are Curiosity's Child's. - The spider is a real wasp spider (Argiope bruennichi), a kind of garden spider and a close cousin of the yellow garden spider, [scanned in 3D by ffish.asia & floraZia](https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/cc0-argiope-bruennichi-5dde6a72eb324086b93b71757d79bb05) (CC0), tidied and given legs that move on our own computer - The fly: a real housefly, [scanned by the Digital Archive of Natural History (DiNArDa)](https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/musca-domestica-157900941156422fbd9dcdfc38a3be19) (CC0) - Sky, grass, the dry stems, nettles, shrubs, dandelions and periwinkle: [Poly Haven](https://polyhaven.com) (CC0) - The web is built in code, after real orb webs and the Natural History Museum's and the Royal Entomological Society's spider facts - Real sounds of the garden from Freesound ([CC0](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/), thank you!): [garden birds at 5 am](https://freesound.org/s/157848/) (matucha), [summer meadow with wind](https://freesound.org/s/639459/) (Garuda1982), [summer meadow](https://freesound.org/s/815552/) (richwise) - Music-box tune made for this page - Narrated by Kelly, in her own voice ## More on the Bugs shelf - [The Butterfly](https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/chrysalis/index.md): A caterpillar turns into soup, then into a butterfly. Really! - [The Ladybug](undefined): From tiny yellow eggs to a spotty ladybug. Watch her open her wings and fly! ## About Bag of Wonder A free library of interactive 3D "look inside" science exhibits, made at Curiosity's Child, a licensed home daycare in Troy, Michigan. Secular and science-based; welcoming to all. - All exhibits and how we make them: https://bagofwonder.com/llms.txt - For grown-ups and AI assistants: https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/about/ - To cite: "The Spider", Bag of Wonder, Curiosity's Child (Troy, Michigan). https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/spider/