What do you think is the official insect of Halloween? If you guessed SPIDER, then you're probably right! You may not like those 8-legged, creepy, crawly, weaving architects that catch delicious prey in their webs. They can be scary but they are also very helpful. I think spiders are amazing (as long as they stay away from my bedroom.)
Your kids can bring a not-so creepy, crawly spider to life with this easy watercolor craft project. The end result is a colorful spider you'll want to hang in your living room ... at least through the end of October!
Creepy Crawly Watercolor Spider Web
What you need:
- White watercolor (thick) paper
- White, gray, or silver oil pastel crayons
- Pencil and ruler
- Watercolors and watercolor brush
- Black construction paper
- Scissors
- Googly eyes
- Glue
Instructions:
- Use a ruler to draw light pencil lines radiating outward from a center point on your white paper.
- Make curved lines up and down each section all the way around the paper until it resembles a spider web.
- Use a white, gray or silver oil pastel crayon to trace over each pencil line. Press hard! (We started with white, but the kids decided it was too hard to see the white, so we decided to use gray instead.)
- Use watercolors to carefully paint in each area with a different color.
- Create a spider out of construction paper. Your spider should have a head, a thorax (bulbous body), eight spindly legs and eight googly eyes. You can make your spider any way you want to though. Be creative! We made a regular round shaped spider and a square Minecraft-looking spider.
- After your watercolor web is dry, glue your spider onto the web. Then hang up your creation for some colorful, homemade, and not-so-spooky Halloween decorations!
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Chanin Victor is the publisher of Macaroni KID Santa Monica, Calif.
