Realistic Black Widow Spider Drawing

Art and Culture

How to Make a Black Widow Spider Mobile

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Spiders!

This exercise is meant to serve as a tool to help students learn about the Black Widow Spider. It provides information so students will have a basic understanding about where the Black Widow lives, what it eats, and how it interacts with other spiders. This craft is not only educational but fun to make as well!

Materials

For Spider:

1 wire hanger
Fishing line (silver or clear)
40 pipe cleaners (black)
1 small Styrofoam ball
1 large Styrofoam ball
3 toothpicks
Glue
Paint (black and red)
Construction paper (any color)

For Flies:

1/2 black pipe cleaner per fly
White tissue or tissue paper

Instructions

Put the three toothpicks into the large ball in the shape of a triangle. Place the small Styrofoam ball on top and press down until balls meet. If the balls do not hold together use glue as a reinforcement.
Paint Styrofoam balls black.
While the paint is drying make legs. Take four black pipe cleaners and wrap a fifth one around them. Repeat eight times for eight legs.
Paint a red hourglass shape on underside of the large Styrofoam ball.
After body is dry push the legs into the large Styrofoam body. Make sure that there are four legs on each side spread evenly. Use glue if necessary. This is technically not anatomically correct. Real spiders have their legs on the smaller portion of their bodies. However, this does not suit the purpose of this mobile.

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© spider2
Bend legs in three places for a more realistic look.

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© spider2
Push a small piece of pipe cleaner into the top of the spider and bend into a loop.
Bend a wire hanger into a circle. Leave the hook intact.
Take fishing line and tie pieces across the hanger to form random and unpredictable shapes. Unlike many other spiders the black widow's web lacks shape and form.

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© spider2
Take a small piece of fishing line and attach to the spider web using the loop made in step seven.
Print out the fact sheet below. Cut facts into separate pieces. Glue the facts to both sides of pieces of construction paper, so that you have eight separate pieces with facts on either side.

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© spider2
Tape pieces of fishing line to the top of the fact cards. Tie each piece of a string to a different leg. Vary the lengths of the fishing line so that each card is easily seen.
You are now done. However, if you wish to include flies continue reading.

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© spider2
For Flies: Take half a pipe cleaner and wrap it tightly around the end of a pencil. Remove from pencil and take a small piece of tissue and place between coils. Use glue if necessary.

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© spider2

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Fact Sheet

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© spider2

By: Nima and Brennen

Learning Information

ToL Learner Level:
- Beginner
Target Grade/Age Level:
- All Grade/Age levels.
Science Subject / Key Words
- Biodiversity;
- Ecology;
- Life History & Development
Additional Treehouse Type:
- Fun and Games

About This Page

Author: spider2
Classroom Project: Spider
Havergal College
Toronto, Ontario Canada

License: Tree of Life & Partners uses only - Version 1.0

Correspondence regarding this page should be directed to , Havergal College

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