Create a Slinky Snake

There are loads of ways you could create your own snake, but we prefer beads. They come in loads of colours and are easy to change if you make a mistake. Woops! You could stick with the obvious green or go from some wackier colours. There are red, orange and even blue snakes!

As well as beads, you’re going to need a pipe cleaner (any colour), some googly eyes and something to make the tongue. This could be paper, felt or foam. You’ll only need a little bit so maybe check your recycling? Re-using paper is great for the environment and wildlife!

Did you know that snakes shed their skin? As they grow bigger and bigger, their outer skin can’t stretch as far so they need to get rid of it.

Lesson over, let’s get crafting!

1.     Firstly, you need to decide your pattern. We’ve kept ours quite simple and just switched between green and yellow, but feel free to use as many colours as you want, in whatever order you want.

2.     Simply thread the beads onto the pipe cleaner. Pipe cleaners are great because they hold their shape when you bend them.

3.     Keep sliding the beads on until you’ve filled the pipe cleaner. Leave a bit of space at either end though

4.     To make sure your beads don’t move around or fall off, fold over the end bits of pipe cleaner. This will keep them nice and secure.

5.   Pick one side to be the snake’s head. Carefully, bend the pipe cleaner into a rough circle. It needs to be big enough to stick your beads on.

6.     To make it look like your snake is slithering around, bend the rest of the pipe cleaner a few times.

7.     To create the tongue, cut a little rectangle out of some red material.

8.    Use glue or sellotape to attach the tongue to the snake’s head. We placed it underneath the beads to make it look neater.

9.     Finally, stick some googly eyes on top of the snake’s head. This might be a bit fiddly so be patient and ask somebody to help.

10.     There you go! One slinky slithery snake.