Spider Handprint & Song

Happy October 1st everyone! To start the month off we decided to make a handprint spider. I saw this idea on Pinterest and thought it looked too cute. It was simple and I had almost all of the materials on hand. 

As an added bonus you can sing the nursery rhyme, "The Incy Wincy Spider." This is the perfect arts and crafts activity for your little one! My little one enjoys music and crafts. So finding an activity that I could expand to check both boxes was exciting. 

Being a former kindergarten teacher I know the importance of nursery rhymes. I know they may sound simple and not so important. But, research has shown us that a child's awareness of rhyme and the ability to sing songs supports their language development and early literacy skills. Everyday at school I would work on nursery rhymes with my students. They enjoyed learning new rhymes and throughout the year I saw an improvement in their literacy skills.

The Incy Wincy Spider Lyrics:

The incy wincy spider 

Climbed up the water spout 

Down came the rain 

And washed the spider out 

Out came the sun 

And dried up all the rain 

So the incy wincy spider 

Climbed up the spout again 

What you will need: 

• Cardstock Paper (We used orange) 
• Non-Toxic Black Paint Crayon (We used black) 
• Googley Eyes (Optional) 
• Foam paint brush
• Crayons

Steps:

1. Cut the cardstock paper in half if you would like.
2. Draw a spider web in the corner or have your child help you if they are old enough.
3. Write Happy Halloween and the year or whatever you would like the paper to say.
4. Use the foam paint brush to apply the paint to your child's hand.
5. have your child place their hand on the paper. I used one hand and then rotated the paper so I did not have to paint both of her hands, but it is up to you.
6. Apply googley eyes to the wet paint so that they can stick when the paint drys. I did not have these on hand so we skipped this step.
7. And you are finished!

My little one's spider did not look quite like the one I saw on Pinterest, but that is okay! The goal of this activity is to let your little one to have fun creating a spider handprint and to sing with you. You don't need a perfect Pinterest worthy piece. 

Let me know if you have any questions and I'd love to hear how the activity goes!

Happy crafting and singing my friends!