Decorating with spiders

Decorating with spiders

Builds on: Hand eye coordination, fine motor skills and gross motor skills.  

I love how just decorating the house can  elicit so much laughter from kids. It's as simple as a bag of spiders, a bag of cotton webbing and double sided tape from the dollar store.

What you'll need:

1 bag of cotton webbing

1 bag of 100 black and orange spiders

Double sided tape

2 bowls

What to do:

I like to divide the spiders into two bowls equally and set one aside for later before we do anything. After hanging the webbing on the walls and corners of the house outside I give the kids the double sided tape with one of the bowls of spiders and show them how to put the double sided tape on to the bottom of the spiders. Sit with them and help since working with double sided tape can be frustrating.

Once they've all been taped we take to the front door sticking them everywhere. I of course get the high parts while both Hoots and Roos get the middle and lower parts of the door. It doesn't take long for the kids to start giggling because it always seems that about half of the spiders like to pop off once they've been placed. While the kids continue to place spiders I scoop up the escapees and re-tape them for the kids to try again. The extra stubborn ones get set aside for the next part. 

When all of the spiders from the first bowl have been placed on the door it's time for the webs. I generally will place them about 5-6 feet up depending on throwing strength. I place the bowl of spiders on the floor and tell the kids that they have to get all of the spiders to stick. The plastic spiders legs are just thin enough and the webbing is just fine enough that even a weakly thrown spider can stick if it touches. The fun part is watching the spiders fall back down on the kids when they don't stick.

When you're done you have a spooky decorated house that the kids can be proud of.

Pumpkin Bowling

Builds on: Hand eye coordination, gross motor and arts

What you'll need:

8-10 Empty food cans

Acrylic paint

Paintbrushes

Card board

Drop cloth

2 small pumpkins

What to do:

Acrylic paint does stain so you should put down a drop cloth first and change everyone into clothes that can get dirty. Place the cans, paint and paint brushes out with a large enough piece of card board for all of the paint you are using. Place a dollop of each colored paint onto the cardboard, hand your kids the paint brushes and let them at it. 

They can paint Halloween characters however they want on the cans but make sure they know that They will be hitting them with pumpkins later on. Roo was appalled when she found out her monster and fairy masterpieces would potentially be destroyed by an onslaught of pumpkins so we ended up using my monster cans instead. Once your cans are all dry, stack them in a pyramid formation or  wall to be knocked down . Place your kids about 6 feet from the cans with a pumpkin and let them roll the pumpkins to knock down the wall. Since smaller pumpkins have bumps and aren't round they'll wander as they roll creating a fun challenge for the kids to overcome. 

*Don't let the kids throw the pumpkins since they could really hurt someone.