Climbing Spiders

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The Goal: To make a spider that "climbs" strings when the strings are pulled apart, then the spiders drops to the bottom when the strings are released. Perfect to go with the song, "The Itsy Bitsy Spider."

The Project: This was done with kindergarten students. It was a huge hit!

Sources for stickers eyes:

Oriental Trading

Lakeshore Learning

Amazon

Supplies

I used paper straws for sustainability.

STEP 1

Add eyes to the spider. I like using sticker eyes.

STEP 2

Cut small pieces of straws and tape them vertically but separated on the back of the spider.

STEP 3

Accordian fold the 8 legs, and glue to the spider. Make sure they are not below or above the straw openings.

STEP 4

This is not shown in this picture, but tape a washer or a penny on the BACK at the BOTTOM of the spider. This will ensure it drops down when the strings are let go.

IMG_0862_edited

Thread the string through the two straws, with the loop on TOP. Either tie the two open ends of the string together, or tie beads or straw bits to the end so that it does not "unthread."

STEP 6

Gently pull strings apart to make the spider climb, and release to let it drop back down.