At Boston Children's Museum, we love to make a mess! This activity is one of our favorite "clean" messy activities. Making a giant spider web is a great way for kids to practice STEAM Habits of Mind such as persistence, curiosity, and creativity. This play-based activity is also a great way for kids to practice fine motor skills as they weave and tie the materials.

Supplies

You can use anything you have on hand, but here are some of our favorite things to use:

Plastic fencing (like this)
Zip ties or duct tape to attach plastic fencing
Scissors
Rope
Yarn
Ribbon
Flagging tape
Emergency blankets, cut into strips
Strips of fabric
Strips of newspaper

Step 1: Set Up

This activity is meant to encourage open ended play, which means there's no "right" way to set it up. Below are a list of different ways we have set up our spaces for spider web play:

Fasten a large piece of plastic fencing onto a table or between two chairs (first image).
Stretch a very large piece of plastic fencing around poles, chairs, or walls to make a huge horseshoe (or U) shape.
Skip the plastic fencing. Stretch a few long pieces of string, flagging tape, etc across your space so they are touching multiple walls (or chairs, tables, etc). This will give kids a good starting place to tie and weave their pieces onto.

Step 2: Prepare Materials

Cut long strips of all of your materials. Cut them into different lengths and widths. Make sure you have a variety of textures!

Step 3: Make a Mess!

Show kids the materials and encourage them to play. There is no right or wrong way to engage with this activity (as long as everyone is being safe!). Kids can tie, weave, braid, and engage in pretend play with the materials. Let us know what your kids did-- post a photo below!