Wacky Spiders

Wacky Spiders

This is one of my favorite Halloween crafts for kids. It is quick and simple, can be done with a crowd if necessary, and is an excellent way to practice cutting and fine motor skills with younger children. Older kids can let their imaginations take over and create some really wacky spiders!

What you need

Black paper
Scissors
Glue or sticky-tape
Googly eyes (optional) or scraps of paper and pens

Instructions

Cut a rectangle of paper approximately 3 inches by 3 1/2 inches. Fold the short side down about an inch to make a crease, then open up again.

Turn the paper so that the crease is horizontal, then cut the paper in 7 straight lines up to the crease to create eight spider’s legs. For younger children, draw in the lines for them to practice cutting on. For older children, show them how to make the first cut in the middle, dividing the area below the crease into 2 halves. Then show them how to divide each half again to make quarters, then the quarters to make eighths. There is no need to be too accurate.

Now wrap the spider around the child’s finger and fasten with sticky-tape or glue. Remove the spider again and decorate – either with scraps of paper or with googly eyes. Put back on the finger and bend the legs into shape or curl them around a pencil.

Variations:

Hang the spiders up! Simply cut a length of black yarn (wool) and attach inside the head of the spider with a small piece of sticky-tape.

Make smaller versions of these spiders to decorate the ends of Halloween pencils.

Wrap small spiders around straws to decorate your Halloween table! Make some bigger spiders and scatter them around the table as well.

Cut a small slit on either side of the spider’s head and insert a name card to turn these spiders into spooky place markers!

Once the body of the spider has been made but before decorating, wrap a black pipe cleaner around the head of the spider to give a furry effect. The protruding end of the pipe cleaner can be curled into a hook shape, which makes the spider easy to suspend from shelves, the tops of doors, and other spooky places! Stick googly eyes on top of the pipe cleaner.

About the Author
Lindsay Small is the owner of Activity Village, packed full of fun and educational activities for kids. Do you have children aged 2-10? Visit http://ww.ActivityVillage.co.uk to find free kids crafts, printables, educational resources, worksheets, coloring pages and puzzles, jigsaws, Sudoku for kids and much more!

Comments

  1. This was quick, easy and fun. I added a pair of googley eyes and placed the spiders on top of different things around th house, they are so cute.
    If the legs don’t curl up enough, then use the “curling method” like you do on ribbon.

  2. like it

  3. i like the project.sounds good. wish there was atleast 1 picture,it would have been better.hence 2 star rating to you

  4. yeah sounds interesting but the reason i gave it a one star rating is because you have no pictures of the finished project or pictures to lead you through the process of making it……..

  5. wow this project sounds amazing i am going to make it but the reason i gave it 1 star rating is because i havent made it yet.

  6. this sounds intresting

  7. Excellant halloween activities, great ideas. šŸ™‚

  8. works like a charm boo!

  9. cool thing to make for kids spiders are awesome to look at an make them………………………….have fun making them it is a good activity to do with little kids HAVE FUN MAKING THEM THANK YOU FOR THE IDEA I HAD FUN MAKING THE SPIDER WHO EVER MADE THIS WEB SITE ROCKS CALL EVERYONE YOU KNOW ABOUT AND TELL THEM ABOUT THAT

  10. boo!

  11. stephanie_94 says

    OMG!

  12. picture!

  13. BarbieBaubles says

    The instructions given are great, but I agree, I’d like to see a picture of either a step by step assembly or at least the finished project! But, cute idea, even though I don’t care for spiders! Ha-ha.

  14. this craft was verey good

  15. wow!

  16. I like this because we don’t have a lot of ‘craft things’ & this stuff most people have any how. & it should be fun to work on.

  17. good idea but needs pictures of the finished project to see if you going in the right direction

  18. pootsyanne says

    I like to see pictures of finished projects too, sounds like a really cute idea with lots of different options. Guess I will try it and see how it goes! Is there somewhere for us to post pictures???

  19. i liked it it is good for a kids halloween

  20. LOOKS COOL

  21. I think your craft projects are great but pictures of them with the instructions would make them oh, so much better!

  22. definte kid pleaser

    so cute

  23. Really spooky but funky.Instead of black paper I used purple paper!

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