No need to be scared! You can have fun with this homeschool mom’s guide to spider web activities. Learn how to draw a spider web, explore the variety of webs in nature and even make a spider t-shirt! Fall activities for all ages.
Spider and Spider Web Nature Activities for All Ages
This nature study helped us to notice just where spiders like to place their webs, plus the variety of webs they create and just how many there really are when you take a few minutes outside to notice.
A ‘help me’ scream came from Lil’ Buddy in the backyard. To me it sounded like he may have hurt himself. He was up in the treehouse portion of the swing set. Frozen in the open doorway, he exclaimed,”I’m stuck! Stuck in the spider web and I can’t move.” But you can, I told him. Just keep walking.
Relieved, he walked out of the web and happily slid down the slide. The spider web, however didn’t fair as well even though the spider had picked a perfect spot for a web. The spider rebuilt the web a couple of times. But after having it accidentally knocked down a couple more times too, the spider moved on.
Eldest Girl and I are keeping watch on the web we found on the end of the althea branch. The one that looked like Horton Hears a Who. Those little spiders are getting bigger.
After watching the really neat YouTube video of an orb spider making a web, we headed out into the backyard on a gorgeous fall afternoon.
Middle Girl had charge of my camera. The sunlight helped us spot quite a few. She told me that the little tree that she and her siblings call the Christmas tree usually has good spider webs. It’s tucked back in the woodsy part of the backyard. None were found this time but she did spy a bird’s nest!
We turned around to look at another web, down low, and startled a squirrel away.
Photos above: 1. Middle Girl photographing bird’s nest | 2. Taking photo of cobweb on back gate | 3. Littlest Girl dressed the part – wearing the favorite spider shirt Nana made.
Eldest boy also captured some cobwebs with his camera. (Warning, large garden spider photos coming up…) After our outdoor hunt we talked about the large garden spider that chose to build her web at our front door three years ago. That spider gave us over a month of up close nature study.
The web was perched where we could pull back the curtain and see what she was up to. The spider made any front door visitor rather nervous, so impressive she was.
We just called her our Halloween decoration. And during our cobweb study this time, we looked closely at these photos from years past, remembering her spectacular web.
Spider Nature Study Follow Up
Another day, right before lunch, he calls from the treehouse again. “Come see! Come see! It’s a spider web!” Lil’ Buddy alerts us that the spider moved its web to the top of the slide.
I come with my camera and join the gathering. We are struck by the beauty of the web. We just sit and watch. See how the web is attached? See how the sun glints off the silky strings? We had the chance to really observe, up close. Middle Girl really wanted to poke the web with a stick to see how ‘sticky’ it was but I wouldn’t let her.
I asked them if they remembered watching the video of the orb weaver making a web. How the spider measured the exact length with its legs – to be sure the distances between spokes were equal. We also talked about the beauty and the detail.
Now some might be squeamish about a spider (this one looks like an orb weaver based on the web?) but we knew the spider was busy. It was not out to get us.
In fact it was busy taking care of some of the excess yellow jackets we have hanging around the backyard these days. Thanks for taking care of the bugs, spidey!
I love how our autumn studies have fine tuned even Lil’ Buddy’s senses. He’s just three (almost four) and notices so much in nature! My youngest girl wants to wear a spider shirt. Many thanks to our Outdoor Hour Challenges at Handbook of Nature Study and these glory days of fall.
How to Draw A Spider Web
Learn how to draw a spider web! We had fun sitting outside and sketching some simple webs with instructions via a link our Nana found. We pulled some black construction paper and used white chalk.
Making a cross, then a star, we added each part of the web, just as the orb spider had. Measuring mostly at an equal distance.
I love how each of ours turned out differently. Just as different as all the webs we’d seen.
You can even blend and smudge your web just a bit to make it filmy.
Littlest Girl created an abandoned cobweb. You can make your own spider web by following the directions here.
How to Make a Spider T-Shirt
Now, Youngest Girl just happened to be sporting her favorite shirt these days – on this afternoon that we got to investigate the spider and its web up close. Nana had made the shirt, modeled above, for Eldest Boy years back. I thought I’d share it with you in case you wanted to make and enjoy one too.
It’s so very easy! All you need is an orange shirt. But feel free to use whatever color you have. Then you need a nice, thick, black, permanent marker. You probably want to put a piece of newspaper in between the front and back of your shirt.
Just use your marker and draw a spider on your shirt. Go over your black several times. Isn’t it cute how the spider dangles from the neckline?
That’s it! Our shirt has survived many a washing.
More Spider Homeschool Learning
Spider Crafts and Online Art Lessons – Celebrate the beauty of fall with a fun spider craft and online art lessons. We find the changing season to be an invitation to slower paced learning and more time spent in nature. Then, we come inside and follow up with even more learning!
ABC Art Activities for Kids – Have fun learning the alphabet with these hands on ABC art activities! It’s ABC learning for your preschoolers and youngest learners with video art lesson ideas with Nana! You ARE an ARTiST Clubhouse members enjoy Nana’s guide to ABC Learning with Art Lessons.
Folk Tales, Art and History – Learn about Anansi the Spider with Jim Weiss, Nana and Amy Sloan in a special event!
Charlotte’s Web Homeschool Art Lessons and Tea Time Activities – The Spider art lesson is suitable for all ages and looks like Charlotte. Even your littlest of learners can join in on this one. Nana also has a colorful spider web art lesson. You can enjoy this one and even ‘weave’ in ‘SOME PIG’ and more of Charlotte’s words.
Famous Artist Eric Carle Homeschool Study – “Eric Carle is acclaimed and beloved as the creator of brilliantly illustrated and designed picture books children. His best known book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, has eaten it’s way into the hearts of millions of children all over the world and has been translated into 66 languages and sold over 50 million copies. Since The Very Hungry Caterpillar was was published in 1969, Eric Carle has illustrated more than 70 books. This includes many best sellers which he wrote. More than 152 million copies of his books have sold around the world!” – Nana
The Very Busy Spider – Craft! My 3 year old daughter loves to read The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle. Since we were studying the letter S, I thought it would be fun to do activities around this book.
There’s still time to join in fall nature study with the Outdoor Hour Community at Homeschool Nature Study.
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