This time of the year there are spider webs everywhere. We stopped to watch a spider devouring a fly on our walk home from school and one has built a web right outside our window, so we watch his antics everyday. If your children are interested in spiders or you are looking for spider activities for Hallowe’en, here are a few we have tried.
Tie sticks together into a star shape and weave a web with wool or string around them, wrapping around each stick as you go.
Weave a spider web inside a hula hoop for a large-scale decoration.
Turn a round table upside down and give the children a ball of string or yarn to make a web around the table legs.
This child had watched the spider wrap up it’s prey, so hung these around the web.
Make a Velcro web and bugs from old socks or pairs of tights. Throw the bugs at the web and see how many get stuck.
Spider web game At-Bristol
Sing the elephant and the spider web song
Pipe an icing spider web onto a plate and make spider cakes to fit inside.
When it comes to Hallowe’en my repertoire of songs is not as large as some other seasonal favourites. Tweaking a few nursery songs and finding a few favourites online, I put together a small package of activities for a preschool music session.
Look at all these pumpkins
5 Little Pumpkins ( A Popular Rhyme in the US)
5 Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Gate
The first one said “Oh my, it’s getting late”
The second one said “There are witches in the air”
The third one said “But we don’t care”
The fourth one said “Let’s run, Let’s run”
The fifth one said “Isn’t Hallowee’n fun?”
Then woooooo went the wind
And OUT went the lights.
And five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.
There’s a Spider on the Floor ( To the tune of ‘Put your Finger on your Head)
spider webs spun using sticks and yarn
Move the spider up your body and make rhymes with different body parts eg There’s a spider on my tummy and I really want my mummy, there’s a spider on my knee and he’s very scary. Lyrics to the first verse are here.
If You’re a Monster and You Know It (Spooky Version of If You’re Happy and You Know It)
If you’re a monster and you know it then say ‘raaaaggh’
If you’re a witch and you know it say ‘HA HA’
If you’re a ghost and you know it then say ‘Oooooooo’
If you’re a dragon and you know it, breathe out fire.
This is the Way we Carve a Pumpkin (to the tune ‘Here we go round the Mulberry Bush)
This is the way we carve pumpkin, carve a pumpkin, carve a pumpkin,
This is the way we carve a pumpkin on Hallowe’en.
This is the way we cut off the top….
This is the way we scoop out the seeds….
This is the way we cut out a face…..
This is the way we light it up….
The Jack o Lantern keeps monsters away….
Monsters away, monsters away
The Jack O lantern keeps Monsters away
On Hallowe’en
I Hear Thunder (Use a spring drum for atmospheric effect)
I hear thunder, I hear thunder
Hark don’t you? Hark don’t you?
Pitter-patter raindrops, pitter-patter raindrops
I’m wet through
So are you.
Bats are flying, bats are flying
In the night , in the night
Watch out for the witches! Watch out for the witches
What a fright, what a fright.
Trick or treating, trick or treating
Door to door, door to door
Gathering our goodies, gathering our goodies
More and more, more and more.
Instruments and Movement.
Turn off the lights and give each child a flashlight/torch.
Play spooky Music – We chose ‘Night on Bald Mountain’ by Mussorgsky .
Encourage the children to make their torchlight dance to the music.
Help the children to choose instruments that might add to the atmosphere. (Deep drums, a spring drum, rainmakers and penny whistles are especially good).
My 2 year old is just beginning to get the hang of rhyme and we often have fun at the dinner table making up rhymes for words. This morning at breakfast the girls found a plastic spider and I remembered a song that I used to sing with the children at nursery.
There’s a spider on the floor, on the floor
There’s a spider on the floor, on the floor
There’s a spider on the floor and it wasn’t there before
There’s a spider on the floor on the floor.
The children then choose where the spider should go next. My 7 year old chose her head and rhymed it with bed. This was a bit advanced for my 2 year old but she enjoyed choosing parts of the body – it was a great fun activity, that they could both join in with at their own level and engaged them for about 10 minutes. They liked it when I made up funny verses e.g. There’s a spider on my knee please don’t fall in my cup of tea.
Fun like this reminds me of the reasons I like to sit with the kids at mealtimes.
Right from the Start 