Spooky Spiders – No Trip to the Craft Store Necessary

I wanted to do an easy, spidery craft with the kids,  using what we had around the house, rather than making yet another trip to the craft store. They’re getting to know me there, and it feels kind of like walking into a neighborhood bar of sorts, only with fake flowers, yarn and Mod Podge instead of cocktails.  Anyway…

You will need:

Cardboard egg carton
Paper towel tube
Black paint
Googly eyes (or paint on the eyes)
Glue

We took two attached pieces of the egg carton and painted them black, one to represent the head of the spider, and one to represent the body.

Next, we painted the cardboard tubes. Using an old baby bottle drying rack is great for this type of painting. Great for little toddler hands, especially.

Next, we cut open our tube and painted the inside.

We cut the tube into eight strips and trimmed some off of one end so the legs wouldn't be too long.

We glued the legs inside the egg carton and shaped them a bit.

Add googly eyes and you have a Spooky Spider.

This craft was perfect timing for us for three reasons:

1. It’s Halloween.
2. We recently studied spiders in our R.E.A.L. Science Curriculum so this was an opportunity to reinforce what we learned about spider anatomy (one head section, one body section, 8 legs with joints, 2 eyes).
3. We’ve been reading wonderful stories about Anansi the Spider while studying ancient Africa.

Don’t you just love it when learning all comes together like that? I totally planned that. Really, I did. Well, actually, I didn’t, it’s just a cool coincidence.  Shhhh, don’t tell the kids. [wink]