spiders Archives - JDaniel4s Mom

Halloween STEM Challenge Building Mats

October 16, 2022 By Deirdre

The Halloween STEM challenge mats feature a bat, cat, spider, haunted house, and witch. Children are invited to decorate each featured element and create where it is. While we used LEGO to decorate our mats, you can use whatever you have on hand. Below is the Getting Ready for Halloween STEM challenge, you will find a number of building material suggestions.

Getting Ready for the Halloween STEM Challenge

First, you will need to download the set.

Halloween STEM Challenge Mats- Black and White Download

Second, if you don’t have Acrobat Reader you will need to download it. The algorithm page is an Acrobat Reader PDF file.

Third, you must go to your download file and open the page. You may be asked if you want the file to open right after downloading it. You won’t have to hunt for it in your download file if you are.

Printing Out the Challenge Mats

While we printed out the mats on white paper, you could print them out on colored cardstock or colored paper. That would give the mats a more Halloween feel.

Halloween STEM Challenge Building Mats- Cat

Laminating the Mats

You can have your children work on the paper uncovered if you like. However, if you laminate the mats you can use them over and over again. Below you will find links for a laminator I recommend. There are also links for laminator pouches, paper, and cardstock.

The links below are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Gathering Building Materials

Halloween STEM Challenge Building Mats- Spider

The following materials would be fun to build with:

Blocks
KEVA Planks
LEGO
Buttons
Craft Sticks
Wiggly Eyes
Sections of an Egg Carton
Small Sticks or Pebbles

Exploring the Halloween STEM Challenge Mats

While the directions are on the mats, you will want to go over them with your children. The first thing they will need to do is decorate the Halloween object. The second is to create a location or setting for it. They can complete both tasks however they please. If you have certain guidelines you feel they need, feel free to share them with your children.

It would be great to encourage them to describe what they have built to you when they are done. That will give you a full picture of what they are created. It will also give you insights into what they can orally share about their creations.

More STEM Building Activities

Build a Shape Fire Pit Mats

Ghostly Cup Stacking STEM Challenge

Building a Hay Bale Kicker Catapult

Spider Web STEM Challenge Activity

October 18, 2021 By Deirdre

This spider web STEM challenge activity can be explored a number of ways. Two of the versions of the spider web STEM challenge are featured in a free printable set. The set first walks children through creating a cardboard square web. Then it shares a round paper plate web. If you decide that those spider webs are too challenging for your children, a third version will be shared at the end of the post. However, it does not have a recording sheet..

All of the spider webs feature the same web structure. Children will start by creating a framework. After that they will weave dental floss over and under the framework.

Building Background

Before your children start the spider web STEM challenge, you may want to read them a book about spider webs. Seeing the spider webs displayed and discussed in a book or books may inspire them in their web building.

The links below are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Getting Ready to Build a Spider Web

Getting the Spider Web Activity Set

This STEM challenge is a PDF. When you download it, you will need to open it with a PDF reader. Acrobat Reader is a popular reader that you can download to use. You probably have it on your computer already.

Spider Web STEM Challenge Activity Set Download

Gathering the Supplies

This activity will need the following supplies

Scissors
Waxed Dental Floss ( You can use other types of dental floss, but they aren’t as easy to use.)
Cardboard Frame or Paper Plate
Hole Punch
Tape
Plastic Spider

Building the Web

There are directions in the set that will walk children through how to build the web. There are also some questions they will want to think about before they build their web.

Another Way to Build the Spider Web

If you don’t have access to waxed dental floss, you can use plain or unwaxed floss. It will be a challenge to keep the floss in place.

One way that you can help the floss to stay in position is to place small sections of a straw between them. Each section of straw will need to have a small slit in it. The slit will allow children to slide the straw section onto the floss.
It actually creates a cool looking web!

More Spider-Themed Activities

Spider Web STEM Hanger Challenge

Alphabet Match Game with a Spider-Theme

Life Cycle of a Spider Coding Printable

May 3, 2017 By Deirdre

This week I am sharing bug or insect-themed printables. The first activity focused on exploring shapes on butterfly mats. The second activity explored counting money on caterpillars. Today’s activity focuses on coding. When children first hear the word coding, they may think of creating a secret way to send messages. I teach my students that coding is simply creating a series of steps that complete a task. Then we work on connecting a series of pictures or events based on a book or concept on paper. The Very Hungry Caterpillar and plant growth are two coding activities I have shared with your before. Today I have a coding printable that focuses on the life cycle of a spider.

Life Cycle of a Spider Coding Activity

Getting Ready for the Life Cycle of the Spider Activity

The first thing you will need to do is print out the Spider Life Cycle Coding. Although this life cycle of a spider sheet contains color pictures, you can print it out in black and white.

The link below is an affiliate link.

If your children aren’t familiar with the life cycle of a spider, you can read themSpiders (New & Updated Edition) by Gail Gibbons. It will give them some background information about spiders and walk them through the spider life cycle.

Then you will need to decide if your children will be using the terms up, down, left, and right or compass directions (north, south, east or west). You can use either in this activity.

Going Through the Activity

Your children will begin with the word start. They will need to create a path of arrows that will lead them from the word Start to the picture of the eggs. Your children don’t have to use the path shared in the picture below. They can place an arrow pointing only one direction in each square. Please encourage them to try to come up with the shortest route from one picture to the next.

Hint: If your children are not up for drawing arrows, you can have them use an Arrow Wooden Rubber Stamp No. 73 (0.5″ x 0.5″) and an ink pad.

After reaching the eggs, they will need to create a path that will lead them to the egg sac. Despite having to create two paths already, your children may need to be reminded that they can only put one arrow in each square.

Then your children will move from the egg sac to the spiderlings.

Finally, the spiderlings will need to be connected to the spider. Your children may be tempted to draw a giant arrow going down the right side of the paper for a part to the path. Please encourage them to draw an arrow in each box.

If you like this spider life cycle coding activity, here are some more coding activities your kids will love.

Little Miss Muffet Coding Activity for Preschoolers

Gruffalo Coding Sheet

Super Hero Coding without a Computer

Coding a LEGO Maze

Halloween Crafts- Button Spider

September 4, 2015 By Deirdre

We just loved using button dappers when we did a symmetry painting activity. They were great for painting and looked so cute. I thought it would be fun to create a craft using the same craft items that the dappers used. What craft could we make using buttons and pipe cleaners? After a little bit on thought, I decided we could make spiders. They would be cute too. I was right the button spiders we made to add to our collection of Halloween crafts really ended up being cute.

Let me tell you how to create a button spider. Then I am going to share with you a couple of books that I think the it would be great to have the spider retell.

How to Make Button Spiders

Materials:

- Two pipe cleaners
- Two wiggly eyes
- One large button with four holes in it

Directions:
Cut each of the pipe cleaners in half. That will give your four sections of pipe cleaner.

Thread one section of pipe cleaner at a time through two wholes in the button. Make sure that the length of both of the sections are the pipe cleaner are even.

Hint

We threaded a piece of pipe cleaner in the holes right next to each other. We did this with two pipe cleaner sections. (They made an equal sign on the top of the button.) The remaining two pieces of pipe cleaner were thread through holes that diagonal from each other. (They made an “x” on the top of the button.)

The ends of each of the pipe cleaner sections were bent to make them look like a spider’s feet. You can bend them all at once or one at a time.

Then two wiggly eyes were glued on the top of the button. Yes, I know that spiders have compound eyes. We tried adding a lot of eyes. It was hard to fit them all on the button. It also looked really crowded.

Bringing Halloween Crafts to Life

After making the button spiders, I watched my son play with the spider. He had did jumping up and down. It scurried across the table.

It turns out the button spiders in the right set of hands have some moves. That got me thinking. I decided that it would be fun search for some stories that could bee used with the button spider. This could be one of those Halloween crafts that had multiple uses.

Here are the stories I liked best:

How Spider Saved Halloween

There Was an Old Mummy Who Swallowed a Spider

The Very Busy Spider

This is not a Halloween book. I know some of you don’t do a lot with Halloween.I wanted to find a book you can read to your children that will go with the craft.

If you have another book you think that would be good to have a button spider retell, please share it with me. You can do that my mentioning it in a comment below.

A Christmas Spider’s Miracle- Read.Explore.Learn.

December 21, 2012 By Deirdre

This week we read a wonderful Christmas story called A Christmas Spider’s Miracle. A very poor mom has very little to give her children for Christmas. She heads into the woods near by to find a tree. Her children deserve to at least have a tree. There will not be ornaments this year, but they can have tree. A very poor mother spider has very little to give her baby spiders. They are so cold out in the snow and there isn’t much too eat.

When the mom brings home a Christmas tree for her children, she doesn’t realize she is giving another family warmth. When the spider realizes what her children have been given, she decides to give the human family ornaments for their tree.

What did we do to explore A Christmas Spider’s Miracle?

JDaniel and I worked on ornaments that he could weave for the tree like the spider did in the book A Christmas Spider’s Miracle. I traced Christmas themed shapes onto cardboard from an empty cereal box. JDaniel and I then punched holes in the shapes.

Yarn was woven in and out of the holes to create a web like effect. I think they turned out well. Yes, I worked on the tree in the bottom left hand corner.

Here are some wonderful posts that were linked up last week:

Brainstorm in Bloom shared the wonderful ways they explored the Magic Tree House book Dinosaurs Before Dark.

Stay at Home Educator shared a wonderful space unit. I love all the activities she shared.

If you like this A Christmas Spider’s Miracle activity, here are some more spider themed activities you will enjoy doing with your kids:

Spider Web Frisbee Toss

Halloween Craft- Button Spider

Making Spider Eggs

Spider Alphabet Swatter

There are even more crafts and learning activities on my Early Learning board on Pinterest.

How have your been exploring books this week?

14 Halloween Meals for Kids

October 28, 2012 By Deirdre

We have been having lunch creations at our house for three years. I though I would share with you some of the Halloween themed lunches and snacks that JDaniel has enjoyed. I have called this post Halloween meals for kids.

Halloween Meals for Kids

If you see one that you like, please click on its link below and you will be taken to the meals’ original post.

We have just started having bento meals this fall. JDaniel takes them to school once a week when he has late stay.

The first bento lunch in the collage is one he took to school just a few weeks ago it appeared in a post called Pumpkins Galore. Ham and cheese pumpkins were served without bread and pumpkin cream cheese rolls were served in a tortilla.

The second lunch in the top row is one that never had its own post. JDaniel took it to school two weeks ago. It was filled with a batwich, apple bats, and chow mein noodles (JDaniel loves to snack on them.) with cranberries.

The bento in the bottom row has various symbols of Halloween. There are cheese and cracker spiders, neon green pickle cats and spooky sections of a Full Moon Brownie from Clif Kids. It was created for a Clif Kids Giveaway I hosted.

We had the best time making the food creation in the upped left hand corner of the Halloween Food Creation Meal collage. JDaniel and I visited the salad bar at Whole foods and he picked out of the food elements he used for crafting a pumpkin salad.

I just made this owl sandwich for JDaniel to have when he came home from preschool for lunch. It is a simple cheese sandwich, but I think it ended up looking pretty cute.

The lunch in the bottom row is supposed to be a scarecrow’s harvest lunch. The scarecrow came out pretty scary looking. I guess that it he would really scarecrows. JDaniel love the french fry corn stalk bundle in this lunch.

We started out our creative lunch journey by having muffin tin lunches. We linked them up to the Muffin Mom. As you can see a simple light blue muffin tin appeared in several Halloween meals.

The first lunch in the upper left hand corner is from a post called Muffin Tin Monday- Halloween. It was filled with wonderful fall foods. There was pumpkin chili served in a cornbread muffin, apple shaped pumpkins, pumpkin dip, carrots, cheese shaped pumpkins and sweet potato tater tots.

Two Spiders Have Lunch was one of my first muffin tin meal attempts. There was a web of sour cream nachos, spider biscuits, an aging apple slice pumpkin and some carrots. The web was so hard for me to create. The noodles seemed to have a mind of their own. This was one of those Halloween meals for kids that I thought would be easier to make that it turned out to b.

The meal on the middle row was featured in the Pumpkins Galore post. JDaniel had it for breakfast one morning a few weeks ago. He loves tortillas and cheese for breakfast so, I made him a pumpkin tortilla with cheese. He also had sweet potato french fries, pumpkin marshmallows, grapes, Raisin Bran, and a frozen yogurt pumpkin in this meal.

I saw the pumpkin face craved in a orange online and decided to fill it with fruit in this lunch from a post called A Great Pumpkin? Beyond the fruit salad pumpkin this lunch was filled with foods JDaniel loved as a two year old.

The last muffin tin is from a lunch called Boo! for Lunch. The title didn’t come from the ghost shaped bagel. It came from the fact that the tuna and cucumbers were booed by JDaniel. He loved the mac and cheese, marshmallows and bagel though.

I hope you have enjoyed visiting our Halloween meals for kids from long ago and just a few days ago. I had a great time seeing what JDaniel has been served in the past.