Fall is also the perfect time for kids crafts that involve creepy crawly spiders.

This simple paper plate spider web craft, and adorable pom-pom spider craft make fun crafts for preschoolers and older kids, too.

When it comes to spiders, I’m not a huge fan.  But there is just something about these critters that gets little ones excited.  That’s probably why spider and web crafts  are always popular this time of year.

Paper Plate Spider Web Craft

To make your own paper plate spider web you will need a hole punch, paper plates, and yarn.  We used cake-sized plates, about 6 inches wide, but you can use full-sized paper plates, too.

• Using a hole punch, make a hole every inch or so all the way around the edge of the plates.
• Then tape a length of yarn to the plate’s underside (2 feet is plenty for a small, 6 inch plate).   The tape will help keep the yarn in place as your child works.
• Have your child thread the yarn through the holes to create their spider webs.
• Once they finish, you can tie off the yarn or just tape the other end down on the back of the plate.

If you thread the yarn down a hole on the opposite side of the plate, and then up in the hole right next to the one they went down, it will have a nice criss-crossed pattern like a spider web.  Or you can just go up and down at will, which is what my little ones did… It still turns out very web like!

Pom-Pom Spider Craft

These cute pom-pom spiders are the perfect addition to the paper plate web.

To make your spider, you will need:

• 2 pom-poms, one larger than the other
• 1 pipe-cleaner
• wiggly eyes
• hot-glue gun

Hot glue the 2 pom-poms together. (You could also use craft glue, but hot-glue dries much faster.)

Cut the pipe-cleaner into 8 pieces.  You can make sure they are equal size, or you can just let your child cut them as he/she sees fit.

Bend the pipe-cleaners a bit to form legs and hot glue 4 on each side of the larger pom-pom.

Finally, glue on wiggly eyes.

You can use your little critter to act out favorite spider songs.  My toddler had fun singing “The Itsy-Bitsy Spider” as he walked his new friend all over his spider web.

Or, bend the pipe cleaners a bit to get your spider to cling to the paper plate web.  They look cute hanging up.

Whether you’re looking for a cute preschooler Halloween craft, or just a spider craft to go with a favorite nursery rhyme or picture book, this paper plate spider web and pom-pom spider craft is sure to be a hit.

You’ll also like:

• Halloween Crafts & Activities — A collection of crafts & activities for kids of all ages
• Paper Plate Monsters — A fun craft for kids of all ages
• Playdough Monsters — Imaginations will soar with this playdough activity
• Subtraction Squish — This simple activity helps young children better understand subtraction.

The post Paper Plate Spider Web & Pom-Pom Spider Craft first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

Wondering how to squeeze in a kids craft this week and still get all those chores done?

This Paper Plate Monster Craft is easy enough for the kids to work on by themselves while you get dinner ready or fold that basket of laundry.

Whether you’re looking for a craft to go with a book, or maybe Halloween crafts, kids love creating silly monsters.  

Preschoolers will also enjoy this Squiggle Monster craft idea, which is perfect for working on hand strength.  

Affiliate links have been used below.  See my full disclosure for more details. 

Paper Plate Monster Craft

Materials Needed: 

• Paper Plates
• Construction Paper
• Crayons/Markers
• Scissors
• Glue Sticks
• Other fun additions:  yarn, googly eyes, pom-poms, pipe cleaners, craft foam  (Tweak this list to fit your needs.)

The big round mouths on these monsters give them the silly and fun look that young kids love.  

To create the monster’s large mouth, use scissors to cut out the plate’s center portion before giving the plates out to young kids.  If you are crafting with older kids (kindergarten and up), they should be able to remove the plate’s center on their own.  

If you are crafting with toddlers, I suggest cutting out a variety of paper ears, horns, noses, and teeth ahead of time so they can choose pieces and glue them on as they like.  

Preschool-aged children and older can get creative and cut out their own pieces.  In fact, crafting like this is great scissor practice for preschoolers.

Preschool Monster Craft

Some kids will jump right into this craft, knowing exactly what they’d like to add to their paper plate monster.  That’s great!

Some kids may hesitate, waiting for instruction, or worrying that they may not make their monster “right.”  

If your child is struggling, you can brainstorm ideas together.

• “Do you think your monster needs horns?”
• “You can cut triangles out to glue on for teeth.”
• “How many eyes will he have?”

Sometimes kids just need a bit of help at the beginning before their creativity really kicks into gear on a craft.

These fun monsters make great Halloween crafts and decorations.

You could also easily glue craft sticks to the back of the plates and turn them into simple masks you can hold in front of your face for pretend play.  

Monster Writing

If you homeschool or teach in the classroom, you can even use your plate monster to inspire a variety of writing activities.  

Have kindergarten and first graders use them to work on paragraph skills.  

Start with a simple topic sentence together.  Add at least 3 detail sentences, and finish with a closing sentence.

“This is my monster.  It has 4 eyes.  It has sharp teeth.  It has a big mouth.  I like my monster.”

For older kids you could have them write a short story about their paper plate monster. 

Maybe the monster is a friendly monster that is looking for a friend.  Or maybe it’s a monster that is starting monster school. 

The stories will be as unique as the monsters themselves.  

So, when the kids ask to do a craft this week, grab the paper plates and let the kids get creative with these paper plate monsters while you work on cooking dinner or getting those dishes done.

Other paper plate crafts you may like:

• Paper Plate Pufferfish
• Paper Plate Flower
• Paper Plate Snow Globe
• Paper Plate Crafts for Summer

The post Paper Plate Monsters first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

At the start of every school year we start off with a new box of crayons.  Then there are the crayons the kids get at restaurants and the crayons that come with art kits…

Pretty soon, if you’re like us, you have a ton of crayons taking up space.

Just what do you do with all those old crayons?

We had fun using our old crayons to make colorful Crayon Drip Pumpkins.

It’s one of our favorite no carve pumpkin decorating ideas.  In fact, we do it every year. 

Crayon Drip Pumpkins

Materials Needed:

• Old crayons (I have found Crayola and Rose Art ones melt best.)
• Hair dryer or Heat Gun 
• Pumpkins

Look through your old crayons and find the colors you want to use for decorating your pumpkin.  

The paper will need to be peeled from each crayon before you can use them.  This is a great way for kids to work on fine motor skills!

If you have a small pumpkin you may want to break crayons into smaller pieces, as you won’t need as much wax to drip down the pumpkin’s sides.  For larger pumpkins keep the crayons whole.

Then, arrange the crayons on top of the pumpkin, as shown below.

Our pumpkins all seemed to have a nice flat area on top where the crayons rested without rolling.

If you have a tall, narrow pumpkin, or your crayons don’t want to stay in place, you could use a bit of craft glue to glue them to the pumpkin.  If you do this, you will need to wait for the glue to dry before you proceed to the next step.

Next, you will use your hair dryer, or a heat gun, to melt the crayons.   (Heat guns can get very hot, do not let a child handle one!)

We found that it worked best to do one section of the pumpkin at a time, concentrating the hot air on about 1/3 of the crayons, and then moving to the next group once those were melted.   The kids loved watching as the colors melted and swirled together!

If your pumpkin has a deep indention where the stem is you will need to angle your hair dryer so it blows the melted wax down the pumpkin’s sides instead of letting all the wax pool around the stem.

Want your wax to stick to the pumpkin as it curves towards the bottom, instead of it hanging straight down?

Use the hair dryer and angle it at the bottom of the pumpkin’s sides while tilting the pumpkin a bit.

The results are colorful, unique pumpkins to display!

Not happy how it turned out?  You can always add more crayons to the top of the pumpkin to add more color.

We did this pumpkin with two different sets of crayons, adding more greens the second time around.

Tips for this No-Carve Pumpkin Idea:

• Metallic crayons (like silver) give the pumpkin a really neat look.
• Using only red and black crayons gives the pumpkin a very Halloween feel, looking a lot like blood dripping down the sides.
• You will want more than one pumpkin to do this with, as it can become very addicting!
• Make sure you place your pumpkin on some old newspapers, drop cloth, or something else you don’t mind getting a bit of wax on because the wax will drip off the pumpkin a bit. 
• If placing your pumpkin outside, try to put it in a spot that isn’t going to have sunlight the whole day.  (We discovered the wax will melt a bit if you leave it too long in the sun!

Finally, there’s a fun and creative use for those old crayons this fall —  crayon drip pumpkins!

I guarantee this no-carve pumpkin idea will be a hit.

***

Other pumpkin activities you might want to check out:

• Pumpkin Sink or Float Experiment —  Do pumpkins float or sink?  Find out with this simple experiment and then take a look inside the pumpkin to determine why. 
• Make a Pumpkin Volcano  —  Give a classic science experiment a fun, fall twist.
• Hammering Nails in Pumpkins —  This is always a huge hit. (Pun intended.)  And it is perfect for getting that needed proprioceptive input, too.  
• Pop-Up Pumpkin — Toddlers and preschoolers will love this cute craft.

The post Crayon Drip Pumpkins first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

I’m going to let you in on a secret:  my daughter LOVES to squeeze the glue bottle, usually using way too much glue for whatever she is doing.

Yours too?

These fun Squiggle Monsters let them squeeze that glue bottle ’till their heart’s content!

Materials needed to create your own Squiggle Monsters:

• Bottled Craft Glue
• Colored Sand
• Google Eyes
• Glitter (Optional, but what kid doesn’t like a bit of glitter?)
• Pieces of Flat Cardboard

To start with, cut your cardboard into large square or rectangular pieces.  This will be your canvass.  Cardboard provides a much stronger canvass for your masterpiece than regular paper.

Once your cardboard is ready, it’s time to get creative!

Give each child a bottle of glue and let them squeeze it into a squiggly shape.

Once they are happy with the results, it’s time to add the colored sand.  If you have a large bottle of sand, you may want to put a small amount into a dish or a plastic salt shaker to eliminate a big mess.   Make sure the glue is completely covered with sand.

We usually shake the excess sand off into a separate dish so we can add it back to our sand container when finished.  If you are working outside and don’t  mind losing a bit of sand, you can just tap the extra off into the grass.

Once your monster’s body is complete, it’s time to add googly eyes.  You can also use a bit more glue to add a mouth or other details with a different colored sand or glitter.

Tip:  Want to make more than one monster on your piece of cardboard?  It’s best to make one at a time to keep the different colored sands from mixing on various monsters.  (Unless you want a multi-colored one, which could be fun, too!)

You could also decorate the cardboard a bit beforehand to give you monsters a background.

Want to get even more creative?  Get out craft feathers, beads, or even pipe cleaners to add to the monsters!

Not only do the squiggle monsters turn out super cute, but squeezing that glue bottle also helps strengthen those hand muscles.

Craft materials we like:

The post Squiggle Monster Craft first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

With 8 legs and all those eyes, spiders can seem a little creepy.  Fall is the perfect time of year to do some fun spider crafts and activities with the kids.  (These crafts are so cute it’s hard to stop at just one, so go ahead and try a few!)

Spider Crafts and Activities

These Lollipop Spiders would be cute to hand out for Trick-or-Treat or for a class party.

Spiders are so scary when you make these cute and fluffy Pom-Pom Spiders.

Collect some pine cones on your next walk and make a few of these awesome Pine Cone Spiders.

These Paper Plate Spiders are simple and fun to make.

Make a spider you can wear with these Spider Hats.  (A sure hit with preschoolers and kindergartners.)

Or create a fun Spider Hairdo that’s sure to get attention.

Make a family of these Fingerprint Spiders.

I love how cute these Paper Cup Spiders turned out!

Or search the recycling container and make adorable Recycled Fruit Cup Spiders. 

Bring the Itsy Bitsy Spider to life with Itsy Bitsy Spider Finger Puppets.

This Beaded Spider Craft is cute and strengthens fine motor skills.  

And these Hand Print Spiders are sure to make you smile.  

Finally, get a little sensory play in with this fun Spider Slime.

Spiderweb Crafts

Why stop at just spiders when there are so many fun spider web craft ideas to choose from?   Here are some of our favorites.

These Coffee Filter Spider Webs make lovely decorations.

Work on lacing skills with this simple Paper Plate Spider Web.

These Spiderweb Window Decorations are just too cute.

Make an over-sized Spiderweb Maze and watch the little ones work their way through it.

Give your web some texture with these Sandy Spiderwebs.

Or use craft sticks for these Craft Stick Spiderwebs.

This spider web craft is perfect to go with reading the book Charlotte’s Web.

You may also like:

• DIY Halloween Party Games — Simple to make, these games are perfect for a party or just weekend fun.
• Crayon Drip Pumpkins — You will love how colorful these no-carve pumpkins turn out.
• Paper Plate Monsters — Who doesn’t love a fun paper plate craft? This one is perfect for kids of all ages.
• Halloween Crafts and Activities — An entire page full of fun Halloween crafts and activities to share with the kids.

The post 20 Fun Spider Crafts and Activities first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

Pumpkins, ghosts, and other Halloween crafts are perfect for the season.  

When it comes to preschool Halloween crafts, these simple paper crafts are three of our favorites.

When it comes to Halloween crafts for preschoolers, skip the scary stuff.  

Young children will have fun with these cute ideas. 

You may also want to check out these Paper Plate Monsters for another non-scary Halloween craft idea.  

Preschool Halloween Crafts

Affiliate links have been used below.  See my full disclosure for more information.

Materials Needed:

• Construction Paper
• Craft Sticks
• Paper Cups
• Halloween Stickers
• Googly Eyes
• Markers
• Scissors 
• Gluestick
• Old Magazines

Funny Faced Pumpkin Craft

This silly pumpkin craft is super simple.  

Cut a variety of pumpkin shapes from orange construction paper. 

For very young children you can do this ahead of time.  For older kids you may want to draw out the pumpkin shapes ahead of time and let them do the cutting.  Craft time is perfect for working on fine motor skills!  

Then add eyes, noses, and mouths that you’ve cut out from magazines.  

For toddlers and early preschoolers I recommend cutting out eyes, noses, and mouths ahead of time so they have a selection to choose from.

Older kids can flip through magazine pages and try cutting out their own items.

Pop Up Pumpkin Craft

This preschool Halloween craft was my son’s favorite when he was little.  

To begin with, cut a small slit (large enough to slide the craft stick through) at the bottom of your paper cup.  This is a step for the adult to do.

Cut out a small pumpkin shape from orange construction paper.  

Have your child decorate the pumpkin with a Jack’O Lantern face.  

Glue the paper pumpkin to one end of the craft stick.

Use stickers to decorate the outside of the paper cup.  

Finally, stick the end of the craft stick into the paper cup’s slit, and pull the pumpkin down into the cup.  

Your child can pull the pumpkin up and down with the stick so it hides in the cup and then pops up.  So much fun!

Purple People Eater Craft

After listening to the song on Kidz Bop Halloween CD for the 100th time, we just had to create our own Purple People Eater craft.  

To make your own Purple People Eater puppet, start by cutting simple monster shapes from purple construction paper.   We opted to just cut 4 inch tall oval shapes, but you can get as creative as you’d like with this.

Just like in the song, you’ll need one eye, one horn and wings for your flying Purple People Eater.  

Let your child design wings from construction paper to glue onto their monster.  

Make a paper horn and add a googly eye.  Markers can help complete the monster’s face.  

To turn it into a puppet, simply glue it onto a craft stick.  The puppets are perfect for little ones to use in acting out the classic song.

We had so much fun with these preschool Halloween crafts. I hope you will, too.

More Halloween Fun:

• Spider Crafts
• Playdough Monsters
• Halloween Party Games for Kids
• Halloween STEM Activities
•  

The post 3 Preschool Halloween Crafts first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.