Spider Light Table With Loose Parts

We sure do! We’ve had lots of fun exploring spiders in recent years:

Spider Science Spider Props with Music Spider Sensory Bin Spider Web Art Egg Carton Spiders Spider Puppets Spider Counting Snack

So how about adding spiders to the light table with loose parts? That’s exactly what we did this year, and our preschoolers loved it!

We add our own verses, such as the bitty baby spider and the great big spider. So when I was putting together our Halloween theme, I found a bunch of small spiders and a rubber spider web. Aha! I could put together a spider light table! In all my years of teaching, I had not done this yet. This was so easy to set up and provided hours of hands-on play for two weeks!

I’m often asked the brand of our current light table, and sadly I can no longer find it. However, we have used one similar to this and loved it. While I have varied what we’ve placed on this table, I’ve found that my preschoolers prefer loose parts for more open play. They love to move the pieces around, sorting and stacking. Open play allows for more imagination, too!

Spiders Spider Web Translucent Blocks

You can easily alter this using what you already have!

Fine Motor

Moving the blocks and spiders around strengthens important fine motor skills, getting the hands ready for writing, as well as other day to day tasks. Our preschoolers enjoyed placing one spider on each block (1:1 correspondence).

It’s a fun challenge to see how tall the blocks can be stacked before they fall over! A good lesson on balance while also developing hand-eye coordination.