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Autumn
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HalloweenPreschoolers14 Comments
After playing with colored spaghetti noodles with George… Henry and I made some spaghetti spider webs with it too!
This time, I let Henry do the coloring. What other color would he pick, but green?
I simply had cooked some spaghetti and threw a little bit of vegetable oil in it after I drained it.
(I added the oil for the sensory activity I did with George, it’s not needed to make the spaghetti webs, but I already had this on hand.)
I did add corn syrup in this mixture while Henry was stirring in the color. This acts as the glue for the spider webs. (I was praying that this method would work this time, after we had the spaghetti flop in the past.)
I don’t have an accurate measurement of how much corn syrup I added to the spaghetti, I just squirted until the spaghetti was nicely coated with it.
Time to make the spaghetti spider webs…
Henry really, really did not want to touch the spaghetti! He really, really did not want to get his hands dirty. He’s been on a kick of this lately… (Its actually kind of annoying, but I try to let it go and usually his hands get into it anyway.)
Like this.
Henry laid the spaghetti out on a piece of wax paper. (Wax paper might not necessarily the best choice, but it works. I’m not sure what would be better.)
Once I thought Henry had completely made his spaghetti spider web, he decided he wanted to ‘crane lift’ it back into the container.
He did this back and forth a few times thinking it was hilarious.
He eventually decided on his design for his spaghetti spider web and I transferred it onto a baking sheet (still on the wax paper) to dry.
I waited and waited. I eventually put it in the oven (completely forgetting about the mishap I had before). Baked it at a low 175 degrees for what seemed like hours (probably 2 hours total).
When they were hard enough, but still wet on the bottom, I transferred the webs onto paper towels, upside down, to dry the other sides. (This is where the webs stuck onto the wax paper pretty badly. I ended up breaking the webs quite a bit as I was moving them.)
The paper towels seemed to do the trick. I’m learning that it takes a lot of patience for these types of crafts. Glue takes forever to dry too, as I found out with our yarn monsters!
Eventually, we were able to hang the spaghetti webs up in our doorway for Halloween.
Henry thought it needed a spider, so I quickly made one with pom poms, pipe cleaners and three (by Henry’s request) googly eyes.
I think next time I’ll give in and just use glue like Mom to 2 Posh Li’l Divas did. Not sure why I thought it had to be edible materials, Henry never puts things in his mouth!
But this corn syrup method would work perfectly for a toddler to make!
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rainydaymum says
This is brilliant – I think we will have a go but with glue as I have no idea what Corn Syrup would be in the UK (any idea?)
Shari says
Awesome!!! We are in the works of doing it today, it is baking currently! :) R LOVEd getting her hands in it, she thought it felt neat! We put ours on parchment paper, so we will let you know how that works out! Thanks for this great activity!
Charlotte says
This is a brilliant idea – I wanted to do some sensory play with cooked spaghetti for Halloween but couldn't justify using all the food just for a short messy playtime.
Blue Skies,
Charlotte xo
Kelli- AdventurezInChild'Rearing says
Oh what a great project! I really love it! just awesome- visiting from "we teach" blogger group! :)
Joyce @Dinosaurs And Octopuses says
They turned out really cute! And I love your pom pom spider. I'm going to pin this.
I bet my son would like this. He's apprehensive about getting messy as well. He's better about it than he use to be, but obviously still gets apprehensive about some of the activities I have planned. Usually I ask him to try it. If he doesn't like it, he doesn't have to continue. But I do my best to remind him of some of our bigger messy activities that he had a blast with. I remind him that messy can be fun and he can be cleaned up! And usually he ends up having a great time. I do want to say that this particular encouragement method can backfire. He is sometimes quick to remind me that "messy is fun" when I'm not thrilled with a particular unplanned mess. Haha.
rmannell says
Great little hands on craft idea. :)
Sachelle says
Fantastic! Will be making some for Monday – thank you!!!
Karen Jones says
Love it, another idea to add to the growing list of ideas for our little party xx
Cathy@pre-schoolplay says
Wow these look fantastic. Think I have time to squeeze this activity in!
Anna @ The Imagination Tree says
They look wonderful! And trial and error is what it's all about right?! Love it
Melissa @ The Chocolate Muffin Tree says
This is so Awesome! I love this idea! When we did a spaghetti activity C would not touch it either … she used tongs!
You are amazing!