12 of 23 results for "spiders"
Collection
Teach the Tropical Rainforest Ecosystem

Guide your students on a hike through the tropical rainforest ecosystem! From the Amazon in South America to the jungles of Southeast Asia, rainforests are full of unique and amazing species. 

Perfect for grades 3–8, here’s what you need to bring ecosystems to life:

  • Iconic BBC Videos: Share the clips on this page to introduce the location, plants, animals, and climate of the rainforest. (Don't miss the spider monkeys and waterfall toads!) Brought to you by world-class BBC programs like Planet Earth, Deadly 60, Seven Worlds, One Planet, and Life.
  • Free Printable: Use the Tropical Rainforest Brochure Template to help students pull it all together in an ecosystem report with facts they’ve learned (and a little extra research).

It’s everything you need to make ecosystems easy to teach and truly memorable for your students.

Playlist
Desert Animals Around the World: A BBC Video Playlist

Deserts look empty. They are anything but.

From the sun-scorched dunes of the Sahara to the scrubby plains of Australia, desert animals have cracked one of nature's toughest puzzles: how to survive where water is scarce, temperatures are brutal, and food is hard to find. In this playlist, you'll meet the remarkable species that call these landscapes home — from the iconic camel and the lightning-fast hawk to the bounding kangaroo and the armored pangolin.

Each clip, drawn from landmark BBC series including Seven Worlds, One Planet and Planet Earth II, puts you face-to-face with real desert survival in action. Some animals store water and energy for enormous journeys across open terrain. Others hunt by night, move in short bursts, or use camouflage so good they practically disappear. Every strategy is different. Every one is extraordinary.

As you watch, think bigger: How do animals adapt to temperatures that would stop most creatures in their tracks? What physical traits make desert life not just possible, but thriving? And how do these species — predator and prey, reptile and mammal — depend on each other to keep desert ecosystems in balance?

This playlist won't just teach you about deserts. It will make you see them differently.

Printable
Get This Free Printable Tropical Rainforest Ecosystem Brochure Template

Step into the lush, green world of tropical rainforests! From the mighty Amazon to the steamy jungles of Southeast Asia, these ecosystems overflow with towering trees, hidden creatures, and nonstop adventure. After watching our videos, challenge your students to become ecosystem experts by creating their own colorful report filled with fascinating facts. (They’ll need to dig deeper with extra research, too!) Inside the brochure, students will uncover and share:

  • Location of the ecosystem on a world map
  • Adjectives that describe the ecosystem
  • Three animals that live in the ecosystem
  • Three plants that grow in the ecosystem
  • The climate of the ecosystem
  • What makes the ecosystem important
  • Their favorite fun facts

Your students will summarize the most important details in their own words while keeping it clear and easy to understand. As they choose what to include, they’ll sharpen their ability to evaluate and combine information from different sources. Best of all, they’ll show off their creativity and communication skills by designing a brochure that’s as fun to read as it is informative!

Playlist
The Halloween Animals Playlist

Delve into the eerie and enchanting world of creatures of Halloween! This BBC playlist explores the mysterious lives of wolves, bats, spiders, and owls, revealing the fascinating hunting strategies, survival journeys, and unique ecosystems that make them so captivating. Perfect for a spooky science lesson or a deep dive into the animal kingdom's more shadowy inhabitants.

Printable
BOO! Write a Scary Story That’ll Make Bluey Jump!

It’s story time... but you decide what happens. Cut out the story cards (Bluey caught in a web, a spider inching its way down, and more) and put them in any order you like. Make up an epic spooky story to go with the pictures. No matter what, it starts out once upon a time and ends with they lived happily ever after!

Printable
Try Some Creepy Bluey Coloring for a Happy Halloween

It's Halloween (or Heelerween)! Grab your crayons and markers and finish this petrifying picture of costumed Bluey and Bingo as skeletons, witches, spiders, pumpkins, ghosts, and vampires.

Inspire by Season 1, Episode 8 "Fruit Bat": Not wanting to go to bed, Bluey tries to dream about being a nocturnal fruit bat so she can stay up all night long, and soon she finds herself flying through the night sky.

Video
Spider Web Design

In Spider Web Design, spiders create amazing webs, but how do they do it? Scientists have learned how spiders create and use multiple types of silk to design webs. Humans are starting to apply the qualities of spiders’ silk to engineering projects.

Playlist
The Bizarre Bugs Playlist

Discover the amazing hunting techniques of cave glow worms, witness the transformation of lake fly midges, and delve into the mysteries of bioluminescence in the jungle night. Prepare for a close-up look at the miniature marvels all around us!

Student Article
World’s Deadliest Spiders: The Top 10 Most Venomous Arachnids

The article "World’s Deadliest Spiders: The Top 10 Most Venomous Arachnids" from BBC's Science Focus explores which spiders around the globe have the most dangerous venom. While most spiders aren't harmful to humans, some can cause pain, sickness, and even death. From the Australian funnel-web to the Chilean recluse, this list ranks the spiders you’d never want to meet.

Video
Meet the Jotus Jumping Spider

In Meet the Jotus Jumping Spider: Australian Assassin, learn about the Jotus jumping spider as it searches for prey. A male Jotus, looking for a mate, attempts to catch its attention by waving its arms. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Seven Worlds, One Planet, a series featuring remarkable animal behavior from all seven continents.

Video
The Lut Desert's Deadly Viper

In The Lut Desert's Deadly Viper, narrator Sir David Attenborough explores one of the hottest places on Earth. He reveals how a newly discovered viper uses extraordinary camouflage and a spider-like tail to hunt migrating birds in this harsh environment. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Seven Worlds, One Planet, a series featuring remarkable animal behavior from all seven continents.

Video
The Nocturnal Migration of Plankton

In The Nocturnal Migration of Plankton, narrator David Attenborough explains how plankton retreats into the ocean depths as the Sun rises. To follow them, we descend in a submarine where pressure increases, and temperatures drop. At 500 meters (1,640 feet) below, strange creatures emerge. Organic particles, known as marine snow, drift down, serving as food for many animals like the sea spider, which uses feathered leg-like appendages to capture it. Meanwhile, the sawtooth eel waits motionless, ready to strike at silhouetted prey swimming near the faint glow from the surface. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Planet Earth, a breathtaking documentary series that highlights the natural wonders of our planet.