Michelle from The Autism Helper shows a Halloween spider craft for TK-2 special ed students using cardboard circles, zip ties for legs, and googly eyes. Students practice counting and fine-motor skills while making a bouncy spider that actually works.
Let's make a super cute fall craft for your special education classroom that your students will love. I'm Michelle with The Autism Helper. I'm a TK through 2nd grade self-contained teacher, and this is my classroom. I am always searching for low-cost, short-prep craft ideas for my classroom, and I have found the perfect one. Let me show you.
What is that?
That's a spider. Watch, my spider bounces.
Boing, boing, boing.
How many legs are on my spider?
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
That's right, there are 8 legs.
How many eyes?
2.
Yes, very good. The materials you need for this project are some cardboard circles, and all I used was an old Amazon box and traced circles and then cut them out. You need a hole punch, some black paint, zip ties, googly eyes, and optional are Stickers. Students will start by painting their cardboard circle black, and then as the teacher, you're going to take your hole punch and punch 8 different holes for the spider's legs to go through. Okay, can you hold your spider so I can punch holes? Let's count. Yep. 1, 2, 3, when you want. Good. 5. Next, you're gonna take your zip ties and stick them through the holes and attach them tightly to the cardboard spider. Doing it tightly ensures that the legs aren't going to be moving all around. So you start with putting it under Gotta put it in the hole. Okay, and then do you see this hole right here? Yeah. The way it looks right here, you're going to tuck your zip tie into the hole and pull tight. Okay, you need 8 legs, so go ahead and get your legs, guys.
Very good, high five!
That was awesome! Good, you go under. Nope, under. What is in the bathroom?
In there. Oh, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
Next, students can take some Elmer's glue and some googly eyes and glue on 2 eyes for their spiders. Here are some eyes. These already have sticky on them. You don't need to glue them. Wow! You like some eyes?
Yeah! Here you go!
Okay, his eyes are already sticky. You can stick him on.
Then if you'd like, you can have your students stick some Halloween-themed stickers on top of their spider.
And their spider is done! That's a nice spider! There you go!
Would you like to add some stickers to your spider?
Yeah! Does your spider jump?
Wow!
Does your spider jump? Let's test it!
Wow, this fun! This bubble can bounce fast!
How do you rate this art activity?
10 out of 10!
Yeah, yeah, awesome! For more fun, cost-effective, self-contained classroom ideas, like and subscribe to The Autism Helper on YouTube and check out our resources at theautismhelper.com.
