Kids love making patterns and they love animals. Why not combine the two to make a fun paper chain animal while teaching them about color repetition? With a little paper, some scissors and glue, this snake will come to life while your children will use their brains to explore patterns.
What You Need:
- Construction paper (in at least two colors)
- Red construction paper (for the tongue)
- Glue
- Scissors
- Wiggle eyes or markers
What You Do:
- Cut out several strips of construction paper in the colors your child chooses. They should be approximately two inches wide and eight inches long. You’ll need at least 15 – 20 of them to make a nice, long slithery snake.
- Encourage your child to think about his pattern. Is he going to do blue, green, blue, green? Or maybe blue, blue, green, green? See if he can come up with his own pattern and be sure he has enough strips of paper in each color.
- Make a loop with the strip of paper and have your child glue the edges together. Then take the next piece and slide it through the circle and seal it with glue. (A glue stick works best for this because it’s a lot less messy and it will dry faster.)
- Repeat this process until all the strips are sealed around each other in a chain.
- On the last ring, the face, have your child glue some googly eyes to it, or draw eyes with a marker. Then cut out the shape of a long thin snake tongue from red construction paper and glue it on for the final slithery touch.
You now have a slippery, slithery snake your child can hide under the bed or hang from the ceiling. Either way, your child will have a lot of fun while learning important skills of patterns and repetition!
By Lisa M. Cope
Lisa M. Cope is a freelance writer who focuses on parenting and child development issues, among many others. She is the mother of two boys, ages five and two.
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