One of the most popular activities during our spider theme was this spider play dough invitation to create. We combined the black play dough from our skeleton activity with some loose parts, and the kids spent a lot of time coming up with spider creations. This invitation will be staying out for another few weeks.
FIND EVEN MORE SPIDER THEME ACTIVITIES IN OUR PRINTABLE LESSON PLANS
FOR HOME PRESCHOOL AND PRESCHOOL CLASSROOMS.
Materials
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- black play dough
- plastic spider rings
- decorative straws cut into smaller pieces (Ours are from Joann Fabric and Craft Stores)
- googly eyes
- orange and black chenille stems (pipe cleaners) cut into 3 inch pieces
The toddlers here enjoyed poking all of the bits into the play dough…over and over again!
Lovey liked the spiderlings the best. She remembered from the nonfiction books that we read that mommy spiders carry their babies on their backs, so she spent a lot of time making sure her little spiderlings were well taken care of.
Spiders likes these ones could be found on our craft table almost daily over the past few weeks.
Looking for a little more spider play dough inspiration?
I love the DIY eyeballs Teach Preschool used in their play dough spider activity.
Love sparkle? Check out this sparkly spider web play dough from Twodaloo.
The Imagination Tree created play dough spiders to go along with the Itsy Bitsy Spider.
And Don’t Forget to Read Some Great Books About Spiders, Too!
GET A FULL WEEK OF SPIDER THEME ACTIVITIES
Save time and get right to the playful learning with our printable lesson plan sets. Each set includes over 30 playful learning activities related to the theme, and we’ve provided different versions for home preschool families and classroom teachers so all activities are geared directly toward your needs.
Learn some facts about real spiders and use toy spiders to learn math, literacy and science concepts in this full lesson plan pack for preschool. Watch this short video to see just a few examples of the types of activities and printables included in this set:
The full 31-page Spider Theme Lesson Plan Pack also includes:
- My Spider Emergent Reader
- Spider Babies Fine Motor Activity Mat
- Spider Patterning Task Cards
- Spider Roll and Add Counting Game
- Spider Letter Building Mat
- Itsy Bitsy Spider Story Sequencing Pieces
- Spider Calendar (or general number) Cards
GET YOUR LESSON PLANS
Home Preschool Spider Theme Lesson Plans (in our shop or on TpT)
Preschool Classroom Spider Theme Lesson Plans (in our shop or on TpT)
Kristy
Just wondering… do the kids keep these creations or are they temporary? Just thinking, I have 40 students and that would be a LOT of black play dough if they kept them. Thanks for the wonderful idea!!
Shaunna Evans
Great question! Nope, they don’t keep them. They create, play, and then clean up before moving on to another activity. I do like to have the invitation out for at least a week so they have a chance to interact with the materials a few times. And if you want to preserve any of those creations you could always take a picture of them before clean up time.
Erica
I just love this too much! How adorable and creative! I can’t wait to do this with my little one ๐
Shaunna Evans
Thanks, Erica! We had so much fun with it! I hope you do, too.
Love and Lollipops
Loved this idea
Take care, Georgia
Shaunna Evans
Thank you, Georgia!
Ashley
Those are some crazy spiders! Featured them on Mom’s Library this week!
Shaunna Evans
Aren’t they hysterical? Thank you for featuring this post!
[email protected] Measured Mom
That invitation makes me want to sit down and make one myself. My kids would love it! Thanks for linking up ๐
Allison
Love the spiders! I’ll be featuring this on The Sunday Showcase this weekend. Thanks for linking up!
Jackie Higgins
We are so on a spider kick around here! I can’t wait to let the boys go crazy with this!
Shaunna Evans
I hope they have fun making some great spider creations!
Cool Mom (Christine M.) Tech Support for Stanley & Katrina
Love, love, love this! What a fun and creative idea. Stopping by on the Home & School Afterschool linky. New follower via twitter. Thank you for sharing and have a great week ahead.
Shaunna Evans
Thank you! I’m so glad you stopped by.
Courtney
What a fun idea for the kids. My three boys would love this especially since it’s a spider. I would love to post this on my Facebook page!
Shaunna Evans
Thank you! I hope you get a chance to try this with your boys. You can always find our posts on our Facebook page and share them from there. I just popped over to visit your blog, and it looks terrific. I’ll be looking forward to seeing more of your posts.
Stephanie
Love this! You know it would go over well at my house ๐
Shaunna Evans
I bet your kids would come up with some very neat creations.
pinkoddy
That looks a lot of fun and a great way to celebrate Halloween
Shaunna Evans
Thanks! It has been a lot of fun so far.
Katie
I always look forward to what you have in your circular organizers as an invitation to play!! This one looks so awesome fun. How sweet that the babies are riding on their mommy’s backs.
Katie
awesome and fun* ๐
Shaunna Evans
Thank you, Katie! The spiderlings were the kids’ favorite part of this set. We really have a lot of fun with our play dough invitations.
Sarah @ How Wee Learn
These are such cute spiders! Sammy and I will have to whip up a batch of black playdough just to play this after rest time!
Shaunna Evans
These are the kind of spiders I can appreciate ๐ I hope Sammy has fun.