The Imagination Tree

Creative play and learning for kids

Incy Wincy Itsy Bitsy Spider Activities and Resources

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A collection of Incy Wincy (Itsy Bitsy) Spider activities and resources to encourage creativity, counting and literacy development for young children!

I’m excited to begin a new series about singing, rhymes and music, starting with some popular nursery rhymes and counting songs over the next few weeks. Where possible I will be linking to one of my new favourite online resources, Twinkl, an educational resources site, who have partnered with me to create some bespoke materials that you can download and use at home!

Each post will be a quick round up of some favourite ways to play and learn about each topic, with links to resources included.

Play Dough Incy Wincy Invitaion to Play:
I set out black sparkly play dough, pipe cleaners, googly eyes and a book with a spider poem (Mad about Minibeasts) to inspire some spider creations! The forks were for encouraging them to add texture and patterns to the dough.

This activity encourages creativity, fine motor and malleable skills, one to one correspondence and counting skills.

Handprint Spider Puppets
We made handprints in black paint and then overlapped them and stuck them together to create spider shapes. On top we added googly eyes and then attached them to bamboo skewers with tape, and turned them into super simple stick puppets!

These are great for storytelling, acting out the main parts of the song, using as a counting stick to jump along a number line. You can print some numbers on spiders here and sit them out to create your own number line for the children to count along forwards and backwards.

Incy Wincy Interactive Songsheet 
This is a fun way to bring a song to life and to create a lasting resource for home or classroom using kids’ artwork as the main decoration. Using some velcro to create detachable pieces makes it interactive and prompts involvement from the child at the right part of the song. You could create a whole book of favourite songs and rhymes this way!
This activity is great for promoting listening and concentration skills,  and learning rhymes by memory.

Fine Motor Threading Activity [from Rainy Day Mum]
This activity is perfect for developing pre-writing skills by strengthening hand muscles and hand-eye coordination! Click through to find the full details of how to create a paper plate spiderweb.
Storytelling and sequencing
Using the fabulous resources on Twinkl the girls coloured some song sheets and were able to then put them in sequential order, singing through the song as they placed each one in the right place.

We were able to turn the other printable (a full colour version of the song sheets) into a song book that they use to sing through together. Very sweet!
These are great for story sequencing, retelling in the correct order, singing and learning rhymes. The pictures would be great for turning into little books as well, which the children could annotate.

Counting Number Line and Spider Stick Puppets
This fantastic Counting Activity Resource Pack from Twinkl has been created specially in conjunction with The Imagination Tree, after I asked if they could be done! These are free to download (click the link to be taken to their direct link) and are brilliant for using in nursery, homeschool or the classroom. You could simply print the number spiders and use them around the room in order, or give them to the kids to play with, playing ordering games or making number lines on a piece of washing line. There are lovely plain spiders in the kit too for doing whatever you like with, and these are prefect for turning into stick puppets (especially if you don’t have the time to make the handprint version I shared above.)

Print these alphabet spiders off, cut and laminate to make flashcards, a letter frieze or an alphabet book together. You could print just the letters in your child’s name even!
For slightly older children you could create a large web on the wall or across a corner of the room using cotton thread, then dangle these high frequency word spiders from it as a fun and striking way to have them on permanent display. Words that children see in their environment are often learnt the fastest by memory.

Check back for an upcoming activity resource post about 5 Little Men in a Flying Saucer and Space play ideas! 
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Comments

  2. The Monko says

    i was a bit jealous of your ever so black playdough so I went and found your black playdough original post. So the secret is black powder paint – off to order on amazon.

    • Anna Ranson says

      Actually the best ever I’ve made is with Silverspoon brand black colouring. You need most of a small bottle. But the powdered paint does work too!

    • Anna Ranson says

      Thanks Amie! Yes I am all about hands on , playful learning so most of the ideas are play dough, painting and active learning so will be perfect for 3 year olds (and toddlers too for that matter!) Some of there resources I share may be better for 4+ but the numbers and alphabet for e.g. are great for any age to have as free play manipulatives.

  6. Anonymous says

    Hi Anna
    Thanks so much for this it’s a real inspiration for me as I love looking at your blog but really struggle with how to engage my 1 and 2 year old girls.
    Many thanks

    • Anonymous says

      Sorry I mean I really struggle to engage their interest in anything and I never know what I should be doing. It would be good to have some advice from you as you are obviously doing a great job.
      Thanks for the inspiration