There are two ways to create this indoor challenge. Choose the challenge that you think will work best for the space you have available and the agility of the participants. However you decide to do the spiderweb challenge, this activity requires some preparation and will involve having a giant woollen spiderweb somewhere in your house. Choose a space that’s not going to be in everyone’s way!

Stuff needed:

• Wool or thin string.
• Tape
• A narrow space, such as a doorframe (if playing vertically) or a hallway (if playing horizontally).

Horizontal Spiderweb Challenge

1. Create a spiderweb about 20 – 30cm off the floor in a space (a hallway or corridor is best for this) by sticking one end of a length of wool to the wall, stretching the wool across the space and then adding a piece of tape to hold the wool to the new wall (stick it as securely as possible). Keep stretching and taping until you’ve created a web. Try to make a variety of different sized holes, mostly big enough for a child to just fit through without touching the wool.
2. Challenge participants to see how many ways they can traverse the web (stepping into and out of every hole, crawling underneath without touching the web, crawling under and climbing out of a hole, then back into a different one). However you choose to move, the challenge is always to get across without touching the web.

To Make it Harder

• Make the web on a slant so it starts off low and gets higher and therefore harder to climb in and out of (if crawling, it will get harder in the other direction!)
• Make smaller holes.
• Add extra challenges, e.g. Move through the web whilst balancing something soft on your head, or try to get across whilst holding hands with someone else.

Vertical Spiderweb Challenge

1. Create a spiderweb in a doorframe spanning the full length of the door by using tape to hold the wool at each point it touches the frame. Make the holes (especially the higher ones) quite big.
2. Challenge participants to move through the web without touching it. They can climb through the holes at the bottom but higher holes will require helping each other (adults can pass children through holes) or a bit of acrobatics. If it’s possible to make a soft landing on the far side using mattresses, sofa cushions etc, children can take a running jump or dive through. Be sure to warn participants that they must never land on their heads.

To make it harder

• Make the holes smaller.
• Challenge participants to try to get through every hole in the web.

Alternative

You could make a 3D spiderweb along a hallway so participants need to climb over some parts while ducking underneath other parts.