This simple Halloween obstacle course idea has been a source of so many laughs with both of my girls since we set it up under our backyard patio!
The trick is to travel through the spider web inspired series of obstacles without jiggling the spiders – and each spider is attached to a jingle bell to make it extra tricky! Perfect for family fun, Halloween parties or as a physical education activity for preschool, kindergarten and grade school.
How to Create a Halloween Obstacle Course
While our obstacle course is set up outside, this activity could also be easily adapted for indoors if it is too cold or hot where you live.
The spiders are from the Halloween section of our local dollar store and the bells from our Christmas decoration box – just be sure you choose bells that actually sound when jiggled.
For obstacle #1, we hung two hula hoops from the beam in the roof of our verandah. I used black wool/yarn to create a web effect around the inside of the hoop and hung a spider so that it was hanging down into the inside of the hoop.
If you are inside or don’t have an exposed beam, you could tie your hoop to the side of a chair or if you have a children’s tunnel – peg, tape or tie your spiders so they hang at the entrance and along the inside of your tunnel.
For obstacle #2, I used a series of short lengths of skirting board as a wibbly, wobbly balance beam. You could also use a piece of decking board. These were laid in a zig-zag pattern across the floor.
The spiders were hung so that they dangled over the boards and a few (without bells) were blu-tacked to the actual boards as well – this way the child has to experiment with stepping or crawling over at the same time as dodging those hanging in front of them.
For the final obstacle, we strung up a huge, messy web by stretching lengths of yarn between two poles. We randomly hung spiders in the web and the girls had fun trying to find ways to make their way through the web…without jiggling those spiders!
A whole range of different movement strategies were employed with this one fun obstacle!
This spooktacular, spiderific Halloween Obstacle Course is perfect for getting kids moving in the lead up to the holiday.
Looking for more spidery fun? Look no further…
Christie Burnett is an early childhood teacher, presenter, writer and the editor of Childhood 101. More importantly, she is a Mum who believes wholeheartedly in the value of children learning through play, the importance of quality early education, and the togetherness of family.
