Spider Webs

If you walk through the classrooms at STA right now you will likely run into a group of 3-foot-ish dinosaurs. Some of them wear neon pink ties, others rabbit ears, and the odd few have some combination of clown shoes and witch hair. This can really only be explained by one thing; it's Halloween at STA.

 

We have started to talk about Halloween in Kids Club. Our calendar is counting towards a big orange pumpkin, we're reading Halloween books, singing Halloween songs, and doing Halloween crafts. This week the kids have really enjoyed Click, Clack, Boo! By Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin.

Click, Clack, Boo! By Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin

Our craft this week is allowing us to target a lot of different skills and the kids have been really excited about it. We're making spider webs! Each of the kids is given a starting point which is a circle with holes and yarn. They then lace the yarn through the holes in whatever pattern they desire and finish it off with a spider. This craft encourage the development of fine motor skills that are required in pinching, lacing, and pulling, and also the hand-eye coordination that allows them to lace the yarn through the holes. We also always make an effort to use craft time as an opportunity to practice requesting and sharing supplies and showing completed work.


The starting out point -
We cut large circles out of black construction paper then
laminated them and punched holes around the edge
and finished by taping a piece of yarn to the back.

Many of our kiddos at STA use lacing as a neutral activity for those times that everything is just too overwhelming. It helps them to calm down, attend to a task, and eventually transition back to the activities. With this in mind they have had a lot of practice with the skill and really enjoyed using it to create something wonderful this week.


The final product, complete with pipe cleaner spider.