Spider Magazine Stories, Games, Activites and Puzzles for Children and Kids March 2015

Hi, Everybuggy! I have a suggestion for your next magazine. Spider should enter an art contest, but Thistle has a science fair. They both cover up their projects with a sheet and then take the wrong ones! Ophelia, I loved your “Holiday Hooray” Fudge (November/December 2012). We ate it for my birthday. I’ve got two brothers. Could you include my stuffed dog in your story? His name is Sprocket. Emma T., age 9 Coffeyville, Kansas Dear Sam, I know some spells that do not include teleporting your friends: 1. expelliarmus, 2. stupefy, 3. reverteo, 4. crucio, 5. avada kadavra. Avada kadavra and crucio are illegal. I have a large cobra named Criso. He is good with bugs, but he eats mice. He needs a leash because he can get wild.…

“YOU’RE ON IN 30 seconds, kids,” the television director said. “Remember, always look at the camera with the shining red light. Got it?” Doodlebug and Dandelion Pinkley glanced at each other nervously. Here they were, about to be on TV with Brad Einsis the Mad Scientist! Their friend Tomiko stood between them. “I could never do this without you guys,” she said. The week before, Tomiko had been invited to appear on “Kids Go Sci-Wild,” a weekly Mad Brad segment where real-life kids demonstrated science experiments. She was allowed to bring two Kid Assistants, and she had chosen Doodlebug and Dandelion. Now they all waited under the bright lights, decked out in safety goggles and colorful lab coats. “Action!” called the director. The camera aimed at Mad Brad came on,…

BLAKE LOVED SCIENCE more than crunchy peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Super Science Week was going to be the best week ever because he was presenting an experiment to his third grade class. If Mrs. Watson accepted it, he would be in the science fair. Good thing he was practically born wearing a lab coat. Science was his thing! “For my experiment, I’m going to suspend an egg in water,” Blake announced to his class. He poured salt into a glass of water. He added more water and dropped an egg in. But the egg didn’t stay in the middle of the glass like it was supposed to. It sunk like a stone to the bottom. Blake’s face felt hot. “Look, Blake’s blushing!” Kate squealed from the back row. Blake…

What You’ll Need: 1 small empty plastic water bottle (around 16 oz.) ½ cup white vinegar balloon baking soda funnel What to Do: 1. Carefully pour vinegar into the bottle. 2. Pull the balloon a few times to loosen it, then stretch the mouth of the balloon over the narrow part of the funnel. 3. Pour baking soda into the wide top of the funnel, filling the balloon a little more than halfway. Wipe any excess baking soda from the outside of the balloon. 4. Stretch the mouth of the balloon over the neck of the bottle, letting the balloon hang to the side. 5. Lift the balloon up so that the baking soda falls into the bottle. Hold the base of the balloon to keep it steady and watch…

ONE BRIGHT AND breezy morning, the wind and the sun went for a stroll. “What a fine day to fly a kite!” said the wind. “Or sail a boat. Or enjoy some of my fresh air in the shade of a tree. Eh, old bean?” “Indeed, my good fellow,” replied the sun. “But it’s an even finer day to enjoy my warmth. That is,” he added, “if you don’t make it too windy.” The wind grew a tad huffy. “Well, dear friend, too much of your warmth can be, shall we say, a bit stuffy.” “Stuffy, indeed!” The sun glared at his friend. “With all due respect, sir, without me you’d have no daylight for flying kites, sailing boats, or sitting in the shade. Why, without me there wouldn’t be…

YOU’VE PROBABLY EATEN a hot dog and felt like the underdog—but have you ever spotted a sundog? Hint: It’s not your pet pooch snoozing in a sunbeam! A sundog is a weather event that causes two bright bursts of rainbow-colored light to appear on either side of the sun. If the sun were a clock, you would see them around 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock. Sometimes they appear with a halo around the sun. Sundogs can be very beautiful, with a reddish glow closest to the sun and a bluish white center. The scientific name for sundogs is parhelia, which comes from a Greek word meaning “beside the sun.” Conditions need to be just right for sundogs to appear. Sunlight passes through high, cold cirrus clouds feathered out in front…