Portfolio: Havergal College Student Treehouse Portfolio

Art and Culture

How to Make a Black Widow Spider Mobile

spider2

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:

For Flies:

Instructions

  1. 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.
  2. Paint Styrofoam balls black.
  3. 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. 
  4. Paint a red hourglass shape on underside of the large Styrofoam ball.
  5. 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.
    Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
    Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window

    © spider2


  6. Bend legs in three places for a more realistic look.
    Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
    Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window

    © spider2

  7. Push a small piece of pipe cleaner into the top of the spider and bend into a loop.
  8. Bend a wire hanger into a circle. Leave the hook intact.
  9. 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.
    Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
    Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window

    © spider2


  10. Take a small piece of fishing line and attach to the spider web using the loop made in step seven.
  11. 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.
    Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
    Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window

    © spider2


  12. 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.
  13. You are now done. However, if you wish to include flies continue reading.
    Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
    Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window

    © spider2


  14. 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.
    Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
    Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
    Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
    Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
    © spider2
    Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
    Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window

    Fact Sheet

    Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
    Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window

    © spider2 

By: Nima and Brennen 

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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

 Treehouses are authored by students, teachers, science enthusiasts, or professional scientists. Anyone can sign up as a treehouse contributor and share their knowledge and enthusiasm about organisms. Treehouse contributions are checked for general accuracy and quality by teachers and ToL editors, but they are not usually reviewed by expert scientists. If you spot an error, please get in touch with the author or the teacher. For more information about quality control of Tree of Life content, see Status of Tree of Life Pages.

About This Portfolio
The ToL really appreciates the efforts of these teachers and students. Havergal College has produced some of the first treehouses created by students and we think they did a terrific job. Special thanks to Seonaid Davis, the coordinator of this project at her school, for becoming one of the first teachers to use the ToL's treehouse publishing system, and for inviting other teachers at her school to do so also. Nice work!

Lisa Schwartz
University of Arizona


Havergal College

Sarah Ianni
Havergal College

Kate Rowlandson
Havergal College

Correspondence regarding this page should be directed to Lisa Schwartz at , Seonaid Davis at , Sarah Ianni at , and Kate Rowlandson at

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