Halloween Spider Light STEM Craft

In this quick and easy STEM project, students will create a spooky, glowing spider Halloween Luminary that combines learning, creativity, engineering, and sustainability. Perfect for the classroom, homeschool, library or as part of a Halloween make and take project. Although are many ways to make eco-friendly Halloween luminaries, in this project students discover how to upcycle recyclables and turn everyday “trash” into glowing Halloween treasures. Using recycled cardboard tubes, pipe cleaners, fairy lights, and a splash of imagination, learners explore how light travels, how structures stand, and how design and engineering work together. It’s hands-on science, spooky art, and sustainable thinking all rolled into one brilliant Halloween activity!

DIY Halloween Luminaries with Recycled Materials

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The Science Behind Luminaries and Shadows

Quite simply, a luminary is an object that gives off light. Lightbulbs, candles, or this glowing spider project are all luminaries. When we create luminaries, we can explore how light behaves, including how it travels, bounces, and creates shadows.

As part of your lesson planning, let’s dig into the science a bit more.

How Does Light Travel?

Light moves in straight lines until it hits an object. In this spider luminary, when holes are added to the tube and add fairy lights placed inside, the light shines straight out, creating glowing patterns on nearby surfaces. When a solid object blocks light, a shadow forms. With this project we can play with shadows and light by adjusting either the size of our holes or the number of holes. Bigger holes or more holes, let more light escape. Smaller holes, or less holes, produce block more of the light.

Different Materials and Light

Transparent materials (like glass or clear plastic) let all light pass through. Translucent materials (like wax paper or thin fabric) let some light pass through, creating soft glows. Opaque materials (like cardboard or metal) block light completely, forming dark shadows. The Pringles tube in this project is opaque, but the punched holes act as tiny windows for light. Inside, reflective surfaces like silver foil help bounce and amplify light, giving the spider luminary a glowing, magical effect.

Energy and Light

Light is a form of energy. Fairy lights convert electrical energy from batteries into light energy. Students can experiment with different light sources including LED candles and natural sunlight to see how each behaves.

How to Make a Halloween Luminary

Check out the video tutorial to see us making this simple Halloween STEM craft, if you can’t see the video, it is likely being blocked by your adblockers or firewall, you can still watch it over on the STEAM Powered Family YouTube Channel.

Materials Needed

• Small chips tin (like Pringles or other) or cardboard postage tube with lid or a Halloween sized Pringles tin is perfect!
• Thin cardboard (from a cereal box)
• Craft knife or Exacto knife (see safety note in the instructions!)
• Single, long reach hole punch
• Awl or thick skewer
• Black pipe cleaners
• White Glue
• 1–2m battery-operated fairy lights or LED candles
• Decorative materials – googly eyes; black paint; etc.
• Ruler
• Scissors
• Marker or pen

Instructions

This first step can be prepared ahead of time by teachers or parents. If you are using a postage tube or full sized chip tin, like Pringles or other brands that come in a tine. Remove the lid and measure 5.5 cm from the bottom of the tube. Carefully cut along the line to create two pieces.

Or if you have a Halloween sized chips tin, you can just careful cut off the top since it is already a great size for this project!

Cutting the tubes is easiest with an exacto knife, however only responsible adults should do this step. Alternatively, you can do this step with scissors, but it is much more difficult to get a clean cut. I recommend prepping this step ahead of time for your students.

Safety Tip! Keep fingers away from blades and work on a proper cutting mat. Teachers should prepare this step ahead of time for students.

Next, we need to create a top for the spider. Trace the tube’s edge onto cardboard and cut out the circle with scissors. Using a hole punch, add holes to the cardboard in whatever pattern your students likes.

Now, make holes for the legs. Punch 4 holes on each side of the tube using an awl or skewer. Ensure the pipe cleaners fit snugly so the legs don’t pop out.

Final Steps

Let’s finish the body and give our spider some personality! Use the hold punch to add holes into the body of the spider, then paint the outside black for a Halloween look, but leave the inside unpainted for better light reflection. If you want, you can add some googly eyes, draw on a face, add some stickers, whatever your students want to do to make their spider uniquely theirs!

Now, glue the cardboard top to the tube. Add a light weight to ensure it dries perfectly and let the glue set for about 5 minutes.

While that is setting, cut 8 pipe cleaners in half and bend them into spider leg shapes by adding a “knee, ankle and a foot”. Then insert them into the pre-punched holes and add a drop of glue inside to secure them. Let the glue dry completely.

Insert the fairy lights or LED candle inside and close the bottom by putting the plastic lid back on. Your Halloween spider luminary is ready to shine!

BONUS TIPS!

Add a bit of tin foil inside your luminary to see how it changes the light and reflections. You can even create little “disco balls” out of the tin foil. Just don’t block the holes with the tin foil!

You can also add some transparent cellophane paper which comes in different colors over the holes. This will allow light to pass through but changes the colors of the light cast by your luminary.

STEM Learning Focus

Science: Light and Shadows, Transparency, Reflection.
Technology & Engineering: Safe structure design for a light source.
Art: Creative design and decoration.
Math: Measuring, symmetry, and geometry in construction.

Learning Objectives

Understand light behavior (travel, shadow, reflection). Learn sustainable crafting and upcycling. Develop fine motor and design-thinking skills. Apply problem-solving to create functional, seasonal projects.

STEAM Extension Ideas

Experiment with different light sources and positions. What if you used LED candles instead of fairy lights, or little flashlights, or even tiny glow sticks? How does it affect the luminary?

Play with Shadows and make a Shadow Puppet Theatre. We recently did a Spooky Shadow Puppet Theatre project that was so much fun!

Bring in more math by creating geometric designs with your holes and analyze how it affects the shadow patterns.

Bring in some Social Studies and History by adding a research component examining luminary traditions from around the world.

Most of all, have fun playing with shadows this Halloween!