Paper Chain Snake

What You’ll Create

Ssssssensational! 🐍 Your little crafters will cut strips of colourful paper, loop them into interlocking chain links, and create a magnificent wiggly snake! Add googly eyes and a forked tongue cut from red paper, and you’ve got a slithery friend that can coil around chair legs, hang from door handles, or be worn as a boa constrictor scarf. The longer you make it, the more impressive it gets!

How to Set It Up

Step 1: Cut Paper Strips

Using scissors, cut sheets of coloured paper into strips about 2 cm wide and 15 cm long. Use lots of different colours — bright greens, yellows, reds, and oranges make a fantastic patterned snake. You’ll need at least 15–20 strips for a good-sized snake, but the more the merrier! ✂️

Step 2: Build the Chain

Take your first strip and curl it into a loop, securing the overlap with PVA glue. Thread the next strip through the loop before gluing it into its own ring. Keep going — each new link threads through the previous one before being glued. Alternate colours for a beautiful pattern! 🔗

Step 3: Create the Head

For the head, use a slightly wider strip (about 3 cm) and form it into a flatter, wider loop. Stick two googly eyes on top. Cut a thin forked tongue from red paper and glue it poking out from the front of the head link. Your snake is coming alive! 👀

Step 4: Decorate and Play

Use markers to add patterns to the chain links — spots, stripes, zigzags, or diamonds like a real snake’s scales. Draw nostrils on the head. Now play! Drape your snake around the room, coil it on a table, hang it from a doorknob, or slither it across the floor. Hisssss! 🎨

Have fun!

• 📏 Have a competition — who can make the longest snake?
• 🌈 Make a rainbow snake with the colours in spectrum order!
• 📐 Count the links and practise skip counting by 2s or 5s!
• 🐛 Make other creatures too — a caterpillar, a worm, or a centipede!

Why It’s Amazing

• Fine Motor Skills: Cutting strips, threading links, and applying glue precisely all develop hand dexterity and coordination. ✋

• Pattern Recognition: Choosing and alternating colours introduces children to the concept of repeating patterns — a key early maths skill. 🔢

• Sequencing: Building a chain link by link teaches sequential thinking — each step depends on the previous one being complete. 🧠

• Measurement Concepts: Cutting strips to similar sizes introduces ideas about length, width, and consistency. 📏

Pro Tips

For ages 3–5: Pre-cut the strips and focus on the looping and gluing. Help thread each strip through the previous link — the concept of “through then around” takes practice. Use a glue stick instead of PVA for faster, less messy assembly.

For ages 5–8: Let them cut their own strips (draw guide lines first). Encourage pattern planning — “What colour comes next?” Challenge them to predict how long their snake will be based on the number of links.

For ages 8–12: Introduce mathematical challenges — if each link is 15 cm and the chain has 20 links, how long is the snake? Try paper weaving through the links for extra texture. Research real snake patterns (diamond python, coral snake) and replicate them.

Secret Pro Move: For extra-sturdy links that survive enthusiastic play, use a stapler instead of glue — one staple per link is faster and stronger. Just make sure the staple ends are tucked inward so they don’t scratch! 📎