Egg Carton Spider Craft {with Some Counting Included}

Inside: Learn how to make a simple spider craft using egg cartons while also working on counting skills. A fun art activity for preschoolers!

Awhile ago we put a call out to our preschool families for empty egg cartons.

We ended up with bags of them in a matter of days!

We were planning a spider unit at our science table, so I wanted to do something with spiders at the art table as well. The light bulb went off when I realized I could use a few of those bazillion recycled egg cartons.

But I really wanted to add another skill to the activity. You all know how I love hands-on ideas for building multiple skills! I thought back to our ladybug counting craft, and then our thankful turkey counting craft. I noticed that children who might not normally be drawn to our counting activities really enjoyed this hands-on method.

And that’s when I came up with this fun and easy spider craft.

Egg Carton Spider Craft {with Some Counting Included}

Supplies for your spider craft:

• Cardboard egg cups
• Black tempera paint
• Black pipe cleaners
• Googly eyes

Before we started this activity, we read a few spider books:

Step 1:

Paint the egg cup black. I put ours on separate small paper plates so that I could identify who the artist was of each spider. I knew if I wrote their names on the cups ahead of time, they’d most likely paint over them.

Allow the cups to dry thoroughly. Then you can write their names either on a piece of masking tape and stick to the inside of the cup, or directly on the cup where there might be no paint.

Step 2:

Now it’s time to count and attach the legs.

Cut the pipe cleaners in half. Take a piece of paper and draw 8 lines, one for each leg. Place one pipe cleaner on each line.

Push the pipe cleaners through each hole and twist the end of the pipe cleaner around the hole to secure it.

Glue eyes onto the cup. Most spiders have 8 eyes, so we let them put as many as 8 on their spiders.

When thoroughly dry, we attached our spiders to spider webs that we stretched across our window, above our science table.

Simple spiders!

More to read:

Itsy Bitsy Spider Puppet 

Spider Counting Snack

Spin Art Spiders

Free Spider Printables:

Spider Scissor Practice Cards

Spider Counting Cards

More fun spider resources:

15+ Spider Activities Your Preschoolers will Love

Learning About Spiders at the Preschool Science Center