Spider Playdough Activity

One of my students’ most favorite activities to do is playdough, so I’m always searching for new and fun ways I can make playdough fun more…FUN!

This build-a-spider activity goes great in our classroom during the week of halloween, and is a fun fine-motor activity for the kids to participate in. Spiders activities are always a fun thing to incorporate into the classroom during Halloween, and my preschool students loved this spider playdough activity!

I combined a ball of playdough with a bunch of different loose parts, and the kids spent a ton of time coming up with different looking spider creations. 

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Build-A-Spider Playdough Activity

Materials

• Playdough of any color
• Black, white, purple, green, or orange chenille sticks (cut in thirds)
• Googly eyes
• Gemstones 
• Plastic spider rings
• Plastic spiders 

My 3 year old students sat and played with this activity for about 30 minutes. They enjoyed poking everything into the playdough, taking it all out, and starting over again!

This activity is great building those fine-motor skills because they are using their pincer grasp (thumb and forefinger) to hold the chenille sticks and push them in, and they are also using their fingers to push the googly eyes and gemstones deep into the playdough.

Another great thing about this activity is that it helps build their sorting skills! As they are removing the loose parts from their spider, so they can start over, I asked them to try to put the pieces back on the tray where they belong. They did great for the most part and this extra step just helped them using their thinking skills a little while longer.

The decorative plastic spiders all over the table were just there to provide them with a concrete visual of how a spider looks, and they could try to recreate that. 

I loved their interpretation of how a spider looks, and loved watching them work extremely hard on their spiders. We got some really great looking spiders…

This spider was carrying a baby on her back! 

Looking for more Halloween fun?

Make a googly eyed pumpkin, a spider sensory bin, or a sticky web with our Halloween Fine Motor games!

BOO your neighbors with this fun neighborhood game! 

Whip up a batch of this delightfully scented pumpkin pie playdough and throw in some Halloween cookie cutters for extra fun!

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Erica Leggiero

Erica Leggiero, M.Ed. has been working and teaching in the field of early childhood education for over 7 years. Erica is currently the director and teacher at a Preschool Enrichment Program in her area. Erica believes that young children learn best through play and exploration, and she is constantly looking for new and creative ways to incorporate learning through play. She embraces this belief in all of the activities she creates in her preschool classroom, and loves sharing them here on her blog. Erica has also co-authored the book, "Learn With Play" with other kid bloggers in the preschool field.

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Erica Leggiero

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