The Spider and the Fly - Teaching Slides

The teaching slides from Focus Education UK Ltd. provide a comprehensive toolkit for analysing the narrative poem "The Spider and the Fly." Students are encouraged to become word detectives, delving into the vocabulary used in the poem and exploring its meaning. Through guided questions, they are prompted to imagine the spider's parlour and the curious items within, while also interpreting the fly's ominous statement that visitors to the spider "can ne'er come down again." Further slides prompt students to consider why the spider perceives the fly as weary and what he means by offering to "snugly tuck you in." The slides also explore how ghost insects attempt to warn the fly, adding a layer of foreshadowing to the story.

As the lesson unfolds, students are asked to analyse the characters' actions, feelings, and the opinions of others, using adjectives, verbs, and adverbials to build rich character descriptions. The toolkit includes language features to enhance writing, such as the use of sentence types, conjunctions, and cohesive links between paragraphs. Students are also taught the importance of proofreading, checking for correct punctuation, verb tense consistency, and spelling accuracy. The slides cover a range of writing activities, from constructing balanced arguments and journalistic reports to creative tasks like writing kennings or letters from a character's perspective. The curriculum links to science, with a focus on the human circulatory system and the impact of exercise, diet, and lifestyle on the body, culminating in a group presentation that demonstrates the connection between the heart, blood, and breathing.