Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for Anansi the Spider will find this post helpful. It includes resource recommendations, free teaching ideas, and information about the book. You’ll have everything you need to deliver engaging interactive read aloud lessons based on this story.
With themes of conflict resolution and teamwork, this Anansi the Spider picture book by Gerald Mcdermott is a favorite in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. It will be a big hit in your classroom too! Learn more about this book below!
Engage Your Students with Anansi the Spider Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of Anansi the Spider. You can find it in the section below.
- Check out the teaching ideas for reading comprehension strategies, grammar topics and social emotional learning skills that can be taught using this children’s book.
- Download the book companion to make lesson planning simple with Anansi the Spider reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
ANANSI THE SPIDER SUMMARY
Anansi the Spider is a West African folktale that takes place in Ghana. It tells the story of Anansi the spider and his six sons who each have a different skill. One day, Anansi wanders too far from home and runs into trouble.
Anansi’s sons sense the trouble and use their skills to save Anansi. They work together as a team and each use their special skill set.
That night, Anansi finds a mysterious and beautiful globe and decides he will give it to the son who saved him. Until him and his sons decide who that is, he gives the globe to Nyame, the god of everything, to hold on to.
Anansi and his sons cannot stop arguing over who the globe should go to. Nyame takes the globe and puts it into the sky to stay forever, creating the moon.
ANANSI THE SPIDER LESSON PLAN IDEAS
Each of our 400+ Starts With a Story book companions come with a teacher’s guide to make lesson planning quick and easy, printable worksheets and digital resources that cover ALL of the standards-based reading comprehension skills.
When it comes to writing lesson plans and finding activities for Anansi the Spider, we’ve already done all of the heavy lifting for you.
We found this book was especially good at teaching the topics listed below.
READING COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
The text-based Anansi the Spider reading comprehension questions focus on:
- analyzing setting
- making predictions
- summarizing
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- conflict resolution
- teamwork
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- common and proper
- nouns
- adjectives
- quotation marks
ANANSI THE SPIDER ACTIVITIES
You’ll receive all of the following resources aligned to the story:
- comprehension questions
- 30 writing prompts with themed paper
- vocabulary activities
- word study print & go activities
- ideas for grammar lessons with focus sentence printables
- social emotional learning discussion topics
- graphic organizers to target specific comprehension skills and strategies
YOU HAVE 2 OPTIONS! WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO PURCHASE THIS BOOK COMPANION?
BOOK INFO FOR ELEMENTARY TEACHERS
What are the reading levels for Anansi the Spider?
- Lexile® Measure: AD430L
- Guided Reading Level: K
- DRA Level: 20
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 2.3
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written by Gerald Mcdermott. It was illustrated by Gerald Mcdermott.
What genre is Anansi the Spider?
It is a fiction book. You may want to check out our genre activities or read our blog post, How to Teach Genre to Elementary Students.
How many pages are in the book?
The story is 48 pages long.
