Chinese New Year Snake Craft

The Year of the Snake begins next weekend.  In celebration of Chinese New Year, the girls and I made paper snakes.  We repurposed an empty paper towel tube to make the heads and fashioned the bodies out of folded paper garlands.  Would you like to learn how?

Materials

• paper towel or toilet paper tubes
• construction paper cut in 1 inch wide strips
• tempera paint and painting supplies
• scissors
• glue
• stapler
• googlie eyes, glitter glue, stickers, other embellishments

Directions

Cut a piece of cardboard tube approximately 3 inches in length.  Cut a mouth shape at one end.

Paint inside and out.

Start on the snake's the body while the paint dries.  Glue the ends of two contrasting strips of construction paper together at a right angle.  Fold the bottom strip over the top strip, making sure they remain perpendicular.  Crease the fold.  Continue criss-crossing bottom over the top, keeping the strips at right angles to each other.

When you reach the end of the strips, leave a 1 inch overhang, trimming if necessary.  Glue another paper strip to each of the two ends, overlapping by 1 inch.

Continue folding and adding strips until the snake body reaches the desired length.  Glue the ends together leaving another inch of overhang.

With the top of the snake's head facing you, glue the ends of the strips inside the back opening.

Squeeze the opening closed and trim the corners to round out the back of the head.

Staple it closed.

Add eyes, fangs and a tongue.  Embellish with some glitter or stickers.

Time to play with these friendly serpents!

For more Chinese New Year crafts for children, visit these posts:
Chinese New Year Paper Cutting for Kids
Flickering Paper Lanterns