You can make a really cool Black-Widow-looking spider out of black olives, so making these simple and tasty personal pizzas is a great way to learn some spider anatomy. You can use olives to build the spider’s abdomen and cephalothorax, then slice olives thinly to make 8 spider legs and even two smaller pedipalps. This idea is a simplified version of the “from scratch” recipe for spider pizzas found on reciperunner.com. We simplified by using English muffins for the crust with a prepared pizza sauce base.
You’ll need
- 6 English muffins
- 1 jar prepared pizza sauce
- Pepperoni
- Mozzarella cheese
- 1 can jumbo size Black olives
- Olive oil
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with foil or parchment to simplify cleanup. Split your english muffins in half and lay them on the baking sheet.
- Spread each English muffin with some pizza sauce
- Top with 2-3 slices of pepperoni
- Top with a generous sprinkle of mozzarella cheese.
- Bake until cheese is melted and pizzas are warm – about 5 minutes.
- While pizzas are baking, cut the olives and get ready to assemble your spiders.
- Brush two olives with olive oil to make them shine. Cut the star end off from one olive to form the cephalothorax of the spider
- Cut a second olive in half lengthwise and use one half to form the spider’s abdomen.
- Make thin crosswise slices in the remaining olive pieces to form 8 legs and 2 shorter “pedipalps” for your spider.
- When you assemble the legs, try to have them extend from the cephalothorax section of the spider.
This activity might open an opportunity to discuss why we are cautious around most spiders. Spiders are important to a healthy planet, so we need to treat them with appreciation. We also treat them with respect. Help children know how to recognize spiders that could harm them without having them be terrified of spiders that will not. Depending on your geographic location, different spider species may warrant your respect.