Spider Game is deceptively complex. The only possible way to make 3 in a row is to capture the center space. Players will figure this out quickly, and will try to be the first to capture the center. If the other player moves around from one vacant space to another without a strategy, the game can become long and both players become frustrated. However, players have the opportunity to figure out how to trap their opponent so that the only move available is to vacate the center space. After players figure out this strategy, the game becomes very intriguing and challenging. Players must plan their moves out in their head. This is the only way to set up traps that force the other to move out of the center.
If children like this game, they may also like Tapatan. When children have mastered this game and Tapatan, they can move on to Nine Men's Morris.
Recommended # of Players: 2
Click here to download the game.
Standards Addressed
Head Start Standards
Social and Emotional Development
Social Relationships
- Communicates with familiar adults and accepts or requests guidance.
- Cooperates with others.
- Develops friendships with peers.
- Establishes secure relationships with adults.
- Uses socially appropriate behavior with peers and adults, such as helping, sharing, and taking turns.
- Resolves conflict with peers alone and/or with adult intervention as appropriate.
- Recognizes and labels other's emotions.
- Expresses empathy and sympathy to peers.
- Recognizes how actions affect others and accepts consequences of one's actions.
Self-Concept & Self-Efficacy
- Demonstrates age-appropriate independence in a range of activities, routines, and tasks..
- Demonstrates age-appropriate independence in decision making regarding activities and materials.
Self-Regulation
- Recognizes and labels emotions.
- Handles impulses and behavior with minimal direction from adults.
- Follows simple rules, routines, and directions.
- Shifts attention between tasks and moves through transitions with minimal direction from adults.
Emotional & Behavioral Health
- Expresses a range of emotions appropriately, such as excitement, happiness, sadness, and fear.
- Refrains from disruptive, aggressive, angry, or defiant behaviors.
Approaches to Learning
Initiative and Curiosity
- Demonstrates flexibility, imagination, and inventiveness in approaching tasks and activities.
- Demonstrates eagerness to learn about and discuss a range of topics, ideas, and tasks.
- Asks questions and seeks new information.
Persistence & Attentiveness
- Maintains interest in a project or activity until completed.
- Sets goals and develops and follows through on plans.
- Resists distractions, maintains attention, and continues the task at hand through frustration or challenges.
Cooperation
- Plans, initiates, and completes learning activities with peers.
- Joins in cooperative play with others and invites others to play.
- Models or teaches peers.
- Helps, shares, and cooperates in a group.
Logic and Reasoning
Reasoning & Problem Solving
- Seeks multiple solutions to a question, task, or problem.
- Recognizes cause and effect relationships.
- Classifies, compares, and contrasts objects, events, and experiences.
- Uses past knowledge to build new knowledge.
Language Development
Receptive Language
- Attends to language during conversations, songs, stories, or other learning experiences.
Expressive Language
- Engages in communication and conversation with others.
- Uses language to express ideas and needs.
- Engages in conversations with peers and adults
Mathematics Knowledge and Skills
Number Relationships & Operations
- Uses a range of strategies, such as counting, subitizing, or matching, to compare quantity in two sets of objects and describes the comparison with terms, such as more, less, greater than, fewer, or equal to.
Geometry and Spatial Sense
- Understands directionality, order, and position of objects, such as up, down, in front, behind.
Science Knowledge and Skills
Scientific Skills & Method
- Participates in simple investigations to form hypotheses, gather observations, draw conclusions, and form generalizations.
- Collects, describes, and records information through discussions, drawings, maps, and charts.
- Describes and discusses predictions, explanations, and generalizations based on past experience.
Common Core Standards
Kindergarten
Identify and describe shapes (squares, circles, triangles, rectangles, hexagons, cubes, cones, cylinders, and spheres).
- K.G.1. Describe objects in the environment using names of shapes, and describe the relative positions of these objects using terms such as above, below, beside, in front of, behind, and next to.