Spider's Web Preschool Craft! Encourage Pinch, Poke Pull!

Incy Wincy spider climbed up ...in this case the spider's web... with a few supplies, your preschooler can make their own spider and web!

What do you need?

• Colander
• Black Wool
• Scissors
• PVA glue
• Googly eyes
• Red pipcleaner cut to size
• Sticky tape
• Black cardboard

What do you need to do?

For the WEB...

• Cut lengths of wool (the lengths and number of pieces is up to you depending on how full you want the web to be). We used three long pieces of wool.
  
• Place a small piece of sticky tape on the end of the wool making it easier to poke through the holes.
  
• Sticky tape the other end of the wool to the colander.
• Give the wool to your preschooler (or older toddler) to poke through the colander, crossing over back and forth until the piece of wool is finished.
• Secure each piece of wool with sticky tape to the colander.

For the SPIDER...

• Draw a circle on the black cardboard and cut it out.
• Use a hole punch to make 8 holes in the circle.
• Cut 8 short pieces of black wool
• Tie a short piece of black wool to each hole.
• Stick the googly eyes and pipecleaner with PVA glue making the spider's face.

This craft activity is a wonderful way to encourage your preschooler with their fine motor skill development. Involve them in pinching, poking and pulling.  Encourage them to use both hands when poking and pulling out the wool. Poking the wool into the colander hole with one hand and pulling out the wool with the other hand is a great way to encourage bilateral coordination. This "Pinch Poke Pull" motion is similar to buttoning up shirts where the button is pinched and poked through a hole with one hand and the other hand pinches the button and pulls it through.

Encourage your preschooler to cut out the circle and punch the holes {the hole punch was a little too hard for my Mr 5}.  They can also help to glue the eyes and mouth.  

Tying the spider's legs is also tricky for little fingers.  Mr 5 has been tying up his dressing gown for several months now and we talked about the spider's legs being similar to tying up his dressing gown {only smaller}.  This skill is so important when it comes to later learning how to tie shoe laces.  You could skip this step completely and sticky tape the legs onto the spider's body if tying the wool is too difficult.

This spider's web craft is all about the process and not the final product. You can remove the sticky tape, wind up the wool and store it with the spider to do the threading over again.  

If you want a craft to keep, you could place some holes in a paper plate for the wool to be threaded through.  Stick the spider to it when the web is finished.

Do you have a preschooler who might enjoy this spider's web activity? 

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