DIY Spiderweb

This DIY Spiderweb craft is inspired by Halloween.  Halloween is not widely celebrated in my part of Australia (Perth) although Big boy’s school is having a costume dress up day in honour of Halloween.

Big boy was curious to learn about the history of Halloween so we decided to visit our local library and do some reading up on it.  The name came about because November 1st is a religious holiday known as All Saints’ Day. The Mass that was said on All Saints’ Day was called Allhallowmas. The evening before became known as All Hallow e’en, or Halloween.

We also read that in ancient times, Samhain, the lord of death allowed evil spirits to visit earth on October 31.  The villagers would leave little treats to satisfy the hunger of these evil spirits. If the spirits were satisfied with the treat, it was believed they would not trick or cast an evil spell on the villagers. Therein lies the origin of the present day trick or treating!

Legend has it that on October 31, people would also wear masks or other disguises and blacken their faces to try and pass unnoticed by the evil spirits.  For this reason, witches flying on broomsticks with black cats, ghosts, goblins and skeletons have all become symbols of Halloween.

This Halloween craft provided many learning opportunities around nature, different cultures and history.  The boys also learnt about Halloween symbols and how black is a traditional Halloween colour. A brilliant recycled craft because we got to use up our egg carton collection, this craft also provides a great fine motor skill workout with the painting, gluing, working with pipe cleaners and yarn weaving.

We hope you enjoy making your own spiderwebs as much as we did!

WHAT YOU’LL NEED FOR THE DIY SPIDERWEB:

Spider:

• 1 x egg carton
• 2 x coloured pipe cleaners
• 2 x googly eyes

Web:

• 3 x sticks/twigs
• Yarn

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE DIY SPIDERWEB:

Spider:

• Use a Stanley knife to cut the egg carton width wise so that spider has a head and body.
• Paint the egg cartons are preferred.  We painted ours black.
• For the eyes, glue on googly eyes.
• For the legs, cut each pipe cleaner into quarters and push into spider’s side after making a hole with tip of scissor.

Web:

• Use acrylic paint to paint sticks/twigs as preferred.  We painted ours black.
• Hold the twigs crisscrossed in a star pattern and use the yarn to wind around the intersection of the twigs to secure.
• Continue winding the yarn around to resemble a spider web.

* This post and all associated images have been supplied by the lovely Rossa from Curious Little People.  Follow her on Instagram for more creative inspirations!