Halloween / Itsy Bitsy Spider craft

This week, we did a fun spider craft at our library's weekly craft hour.  I should have taken a photo of the librarian's sample spiders, because they were very cute.  Ours is a bit more kid-created, but the Bibliophile had a lot of fun with it.  For supplies, we used four black pipe cleaners, assorted beads (they look really good when you use all one color, like orange or purple, but of course that's not as fun to a 2-3 year old), and clear thread. 

The basic directions seem to be here, but we added a long clear piece of thread (fishing line sort of thread) to tie the pipe cleaners together after the first step (bending the four pipe cleaners together in half), and that thread served as a string to dance the spider around on or hang it from later.

Note: Nothing secures the beads onto the pipe cleaners (they fit fairly tightly so they stay put for awhile), so this could be a choking hazard later (as the kids play with it and the beads fall off), if you have multiple age groups in your house.

Since coming home, our spider has been given a tour of the house, swung around, and played a game of Cathedral.

As we left the library, we of course had to hunt down a spider book to go with it.  The librarian recommended Yellow Bird Black Spider, so we brought it home.  The story revolves around a yellow bird that breaks all the norms - preferring to live in a hotel over a nest, to play the guitar rather than tweet, and to eat, well, I won't ruin the ending for you.  Although not quite as clever, I thought it had a hint of Mo Willems in it; I think it probably appeals more to parents than childen, at least at the Bibliophile's age.

Another of our favorites, from possibly the very first batch of books we ever bought the Bibliophile, when he was still the Infant Bibliophile, is this Itsy Bitsy Spider board book.  He still likes to read it, but now he reads it once through in English and then again singing it in Spanish.

I am linking this post up with STart, Kids Get Crafty, Tot Tuesday, Read Aloud Thursday, and Crafty Soiree.

Comment: Do you have any fav spider books or crafts to share?  Please don't say "Spiderman"; I got very tired of wading through those entries in the library catalog. :)

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