Itsy Bitsy Spider for Older Children

Of all the bugs in the garden, Itsy Bitsy was the greatest daredevil.

When the butterflies teased her because she couldn't fly, she marched right up to the top of a flower pot, spun a bit of silk which was caught by the slightest of breezes, and sailed to the other end of the garden without any effort at all.

When some ants bragged about how strong they were, Bitsy wrapped them up in a web and they couldn't get out until she let them go.

When a water strider was showing off how he could tiptoe across a puddle without his feet sinking into the water, Itsy saw that a rain cloud was approaching and she laughed and said, "Watch this!" She picked up a leaf and climbed way up inside a drainpipe on the side of the house.

Just as she reached the top, a heavy rain poured down, filling the rain gutter and gurgling down the drainpipe. The water carried Itsy down at a very high speed. When the water burst out of the spout at the bottom of the drainpipe, Itsy Bitsy was riding the leaf like a surfboard on a wave in the ocean. All the bugs cheered, including the water strider.

Bitsy thought this was so much fun, she did it many times that afternoon. Her friend June Bug even wrote this poem about her:

Itsy Bitsy spider climbed up the water spout
Down came the rain and washed the spider out
Out came the sun and dried up all the rain
And the Itsy Bitsy spider went up the spout again!