Itsy, Bitsy, Creepy, Crawly Play Date


We have a standing play date each week with a special group of moms and toddlers.  We rotate hosting duties and it works very nicely for socializing the kids and the mamas.  I love hosting because I love trying to come up with fun things for the kids to do while they are here.

Since we are coming up on Halloween I thought it would be fun to have a  Trick or Treat play date to play with and eat spiders!

A Simple Spider Snack Trick

The trick part of the day came when I asked the kids if they would like to eat spiders.  Some of them enthusiastically said, “YES!” while others were a little turned off by the idea, but when I brought out these beauties, everybody wanted to try one. So, it quickly turned into a treat!

Jell-O Creepy Crawly Spider

The recipe for JELL-O Creepy Crawly JIGGLERS is super simple to put together and is easily modified to what you can find at your local store.  We could not find the black licorice specified in the recipe, so we used purple grape flavored licorice ropes cut into small strips.  I often forget how easy it is to make Jell-O.  My family loves it, so it was fun to give them something special that did not require a lot of time to prepare.  If you are serving these to young ones (like we were), you might want to watch closely or take the spider apart before giving it to them because it is fastened together with a toothpick or skewer.

Simple Spider Sensory Bin

Then, our little ones had such a great time playing with the spiders and “spider eggs” sensory bin I set up for them.  It was a very simple bin with floral water beads (from the floral department) and toy spiders in various colors.  We talked about the slippery and slimy spider eggs and the spiders.

A couple of the kids spontaneously broke into singing, “The Itsy, Bitsy Spider.”  Before we placed the sensory bin in front of the kids we made sure to explain that we don’t eat spider eggs and we have to keep the spider eggs with their mommies in the bin (so we didn’t have to pick up too many!).  I also placed a piece of no-slip shelf liner on the table underneath the plastic bin, so the spiders and spider eggs didn’t slip away.

spider and spider eggs sensory bin

A Simple Treat

Each kid also got to take home a spider ring, another sweet and spooky treat for little hands.spider rings

A few more play dates like this one and we will have all the neighbor kids clamoring for an invite to our house for Halloween!

itsy bitsy creepy crawly play date

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.


This Post Has One Comment

  1. Jen

    Looks like you had a lot of fun! Love those Jell-O spiders.

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