Hallowe'en Preparations

Making Decorations

A Read-Along Activity

There Are Spiders Everywhere
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The bears had such a great Hallowe'en Party last year that they've decided to host another one this year and they've invited all their pals!

In the meantime, they've invited Edward over to help them prepare for it. Edward and Crackers started making some of the decorations. This year they decided to make scary spiders (they don't mean you, Scary!)

Edward cut out 2 lots of 2" diameter discs from cardboard, with a central 1" hole in each of them. Then he found some black wool and cut off a very long length of it and threaded it through a bodkin (that's a fat needle with a blunt end instead of a sharp one). Edward really ought not to be using sharp needles!!

Then he held the 2 discs together and started to wind the wool neatly around them, using the bodkin to thread it through the hole.

Edward Making Spider Bodies
Edward Making Spider Bodies
It was very tiring looping the wool around and around and around the discs, but eventually the inner hole was so full he couldn't get the bodkin through it! So he stopped!

He cut the wool around the edge of the discs, then pulled the discs apart slightly, then tied a shorter piece of wool around them, capturing all the bits. Then he pulled the discs totally off the wool. After a bit of primping and pulling, there appeared a perfectly lovely round pom-pom. Gorgeous! This would be the spider's body.

Meanwhile, Crackers was cutting up black pipe cleaners into equal lengths to make the spider's legs.

Crackers Starts Making Spider Legs
Crackers Starts Making Spider Legs
By cutting the pipe cleaners twice the length he wanted the legs to end up, he only had to cut 4 lengths - 8 legs on a spider, divided by 2 equals 4! Crackers is very good at his sums!!!

He put the 4 lengths together and crossed them all in the middle, then spread them out slightly so that they would look like the legs on a spider.

Crackers Making Spider Legs
Crackers Making Spider Legs
He also bent them at what would be the spider's "knees" and "ankles" - do spiders have knees and ankles??!?

Crackers Gluing Bodies And Legs Together
Crackers Gluing Bodies And Legs Together
Anyway, Edward passed over his spider's body to Crackers, and Crackers very carefully glued it onto the legs he had made. Then, even more carefully, he glued 2 googly eyes onto the spider's body.

The result was an awesome-looking spider!! It almost looked real!

Edward With Finished Spider
Edward With Finished Spider
Then Edward and Crackers set to and made a load more, so that there was a whole bunch of them.

They will be dangling their spiders on black elastic from the ceiling so that they will bounce around and look as though they are moving!! How scary will that be for their guests?

Spiders All Over Edward
Spiders All Over Edward!

Perhaps you could find the materials to make your own spiders too. Follow the instructions above, and check out the photos here to see if yours look as life-like as theirs!! Good luck!