Halloween or Incy Wincy Spider Craft - Make a Climbing Spider or Floating Ghost

About 5 years ago I made a climbing spider in this way and we had great fun moving him up & down in time to the words of Incy Wincy Spider. As you pull the strings out to the side the spider moves upwards & then it 'crawls' back down as you bring your hands back together. 

I remembered about this craft the other day and realised it would make a great Halloween activity & decoration with either a spider or a ghost - or anything else their imaginations dream up! But this time Ollie & Phoebe are old enough to make their own!

To make this you need card or paper plates, paper straws, string or wool, 4 beads per creature & sellotape.

Here's a step-by-step guide:-

1. Make your character. A ghost can simply be cut out of card & decorated. I made my spider out of a paper plate - to do this, cut the ridged edge off your plate, snip the removed edge into quarters & then cut each quarter into half lengthways to make eight legs. 

Stick four legs to the back of each side with sellotape then paint/decorate the front of your spider.

2. Cut a paper straw into quarters. You need two pieces of straw per creature - sellotape the straws to the back of your creature with the straws pointing from top to bottom of your spider/ghost.

3. Cut a piece of string or wool that's twice the length you want your creature to hang down & thread one end through each of the straws. The loop in the string should be at the top of your creature.

4. Thread one of your beads onto each of the strings. Make sure enough string is hanging below the bead so that it is dangling well below the base of your creature when the bead is resting against the bottom of the straw & then tie the string around the bead so that it won't move. 

The children struggled to thread the string through the beads so I wrapped a small piece of tape tightly around the end of the string & this made it much easier.

5. Tie your other two beads to the very ends of the strings. Check they are visible below your creature.

6. Find the middle of your string & tape it securely to the top of a door. Now time to play - hold  one of the visible beads in each hand & pull them outwards to see your creature move upwards! Ollie & Phoebe were sharing the beads for the same creature at one point so that they could pull them right up to the very top!

Superheroes would be a good one to do this with - make Spider-Man climb up the wall or Superman fly! Or you could make sea creatures & mermaids bob up & down against a sea backdrop. I'd love to hear about it if you do your own version of this!