Straw and Pipe Cleaner Spider Web

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Looking for a fun Halloween craft or STEM challenge?  Build a Straw and Pipe Cleaner Spider Web! For fun, yet this simple activity you can make an adorable spider web with just two supplies: paper straws and pipe cleaners!  This was something I dreamed up when I saw the cute Halloween straws in the decoration aisle last week.

How to Make the Straw and Pipe Cleaner Spider Web

My daughter and I formulated this idea and figured this out together. It was fun using her mind as well. We made it into a bit of a challenge. How can we do the? How big do the straws need to be?  How long does the pipe cleaner need to be?  You could easily use this as a STEM challenge by just giving kids the supplies and seeing what they come up with!

To make this straw and pipe cleaner spider web, we used about 22 paper straws & probably a similar amount of pipe cleaners ( I forgot to count, sorry!)

We started with a star of 6 straws in the center.  You will need to combine two pipe cleaners together and go through two straws at a time. Twist around each other at the center to secure them.

Once you have the basic star shape formed, you will go around the circle with smaller pieces. We did the contrasting color for this part. For the inner circle, we figured we would need to cut the straws into thirds. Do the same with the pipe cleaners. Attach two together and wrap around the long straws as you go around. If you run out of pipe cleaner, just twist another one to it.

For the second row we used straws cut in half and repeated the same process.

For the outer row, the full straw was just a bit too big, so I cut about an inch off the end of each one.

My daughter was so proud of her creation!!

Then, of course, we had to add a little pipe cleaner spider onto it! This was done with three black pipe cleaners cut in half. Use four  pieces and twist in the center to make the 8 legs. Use one more to make the head and one for the body.

Try it out!  We ended up hanging it up on our front door. The kids LOVE it!

Read Some Spider Books to Extend the Learning:

Be sure to also check out the STEAM Kids Halloween book!  It has some fabulous learning ideas for the Halloween season!

Want more Halloween ideas? Here are a few more for you:

Candy Corn Fractions
Candy Corn Slime
Milk Jug Skeleton
Shrunken Head Apples
Pumpkin Math
Halloween Spider Jell-O Jigglers

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