[AlwaysByMySide]

My 2 year old recently has been talking a lot about spiders. I don't know WHY, she just has. (She refers to most pictures of "bugs" as spiders.) As luck would have it, she "met" a tiny spider on the playground today, and followed it around like a lost puppy. Too cute!

I figured this forum would be the best place to post this question....does anyone have anything in their arsenal to help stoke this fire? I just cut up an egg carton and put out pipe cleaners to make spiders tomorrow, and checked out the Eric Carle book about The Very Busy Spider. Short of actually GETTING a spider (I DO have to draw the line somewhere!

), does anyone else have any ideas?

I don't know that she'd be able to make the connection between spiders and webs, but that's also worth a shot. Do you think she just knew Halloween was coming up? Couldn't have timed it better!

Thanks in advance!

 

[spruce]

Woooo-hooo! A subject we're working on right now!

We've made paper-cone spiders by cutting out circles (on black paper, by tracing around a bowl). Then we cut a straight line into the center of the spider, and bend it into a cone. Glue. Next you affix wiggly eyes or draw them, and a happy spider smile with white crayon (don't forget fangs!). Make 8 paper legs out of black paper as well, and accordion fold them, then glue to the underside of the spider. Get some yarn and tape it to the "back" of the spider and hang! We have about 10 of these all over the house.

2nd idea (both of these are from a craft book about the month of October) is to make oatmeal cookies. Fill them with frosting (like an oreo), and stick in 8 licorice legs.

Have fun!

love, p

 

[3momkmb]

You can make spider webs with black construction paper, white paint and a marble. Place the paper in the bottom of a brownie pan or jelly roll pan. Put a small squirt of paint in the center of the paper and then put the marble on the paint. By tilting the pan you cause the marble to roll around and make a *web*.

 

[grahamsmom98]

Hmmm, we have a live female black widow in a habitat. We feed it crickets and moths (and the occasional wolf spider). We have also put in other black widows and it has been interesting to see what happens She doesn't like them and has killed the other females. The small male has kept itself alive by hiding amongst the debris we added to the habitat. We expect they have already mated or will. No egg sack yet. Winter is comig and we will put the habitat in the garage to see if she lives through the Winter (hibernates) or not.

But, that might be a bit much for your little munchkin! The other posters have some great ideas. Check out the internet and maybe look at EnchantedLearning.com. That website generally has fun activities on a variety of subjects (I'm pretty sure there are spiders).

 

[vac70]

My 3yo, a future entomologist, LOVES this website:

http://www.spiderzrule.com/spiderphotos.htm

 

[Krystal323]

EEEW what was i thinking clicking that link all by myself late at night??

saving it for when the dc wake up tomorrow tho--thx!