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!
You will 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.
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 <a href="http://ww.ActivityVillage.co.uk" target="_blank">http://ww.ActivityVillage.co.uk</a> to find free kids crafts, printables, educational resources, worksheets, coloring pages and puzzles, jigsaws, Sudoku for kids and much more!
This article has been accessed 23 times since 2005-10-17.
