Spider Project

Early October we jumped right into our Halloween themed art projects starting with our web spinning and spider beading creations! Beginning the lesson we all gathered together in the garden and read “The Very Busy Spider” by Eric Carle. This story is special because in the simplest way it explains the ideas of concentration and how great things take time to create. A lot of the children were familiar with the story so we had great fun making all the animal noises that appear in the story!

Afterward, we went on a spider web hunt around the garden to observe real-life spider webs and many of them were astonished at how much work truly went into them.
Then we were inspired enough finally sit down and spin our own web.
This was a great exercise of fine motor and hand-eye coordination skills. What I also noticed was how the friends who a had more strengths in these skills were so proud of what they had accomplished that they were assisting friends who were having a harder time. They would work and encourage one another and would talk about how the very busy spider never gave up until her web was completed.

Some classes even worked on a larger web together, each contributing to wrapping string around different nails on the canvas.
After completing our webs we continued on to make our spiders!

I prepped the base of our spiders by hot gluing the following items:

*close pins
* multicolored pom poms
* googly eyesWe then continued working on our fine motor pinching skills to open the close the pins as we place legs (pipe cleaners) into them. After we decorated the legs by threading them with beads.Beading has many benefits in hand manipulating skills by increasing strength and coordination in small hands and finger muscles.After final touches, we all proudly placed each unique spider on their web. Some friends loved their spiders so much they’d rather continue playing with them 🙂