Chinese Culture for Kids Craft Series: Fun Spiral Snake Craft Project for the Year of the Snake
2013 is the Chinese Year of the Snake. Did you know that in Chinese culture the “Year of the Snake” is also known as the “Year of the Little Dragon?!”
Here is a Fun Spiral Snake craft you can make at home with your child. I have created the design for you to print out on stock paper.
What you need:
1. Stock paper any color
2. Scissors
3. String
4. Glue
5. Hole punch
6. Sequins in various colors (optional)
Printable pattern:
How to:
1. Print out the spiral snake design on stock paper. I used the 65 lb red stock paper and it worked well.
2. Cut the snake pattern along the spiral line. Start cutting from the right hand side of the snake and cut all the way up to the second last circle. The black circle in the middle is the mark for hole punch.
3. You only need to cut the left hand side of the snake head and stop at the top of the head. Make sure you don’t cut the snake head off.
4. Punch a hole at the end of the spiral as marked and pull a string through as a holder.
5. Cut the lucky phrase and fold along the line in the middle. The black hole is a mark for hole punch so you can pull the string through and tape it in the back of the snake head.
6. Decorate the body of the snake with sequins. (optional)
Chinese words, phrases, and sentences to have fun with while working on the craft:
Very cute and a nice project for older kids. This would have been much easier for me that my sad attempt at a sock puppet snake. He as an ugly lil critter, lol
I did it at home with my two kids (7 and 9) and they had fun with it. I also did it with a group of mixed age children (3-9) and they were happy with this funny snake. A couple of the young ones cut the snake head off and the easy fix was to do it again.:) The sock puppet idea sounds a lot of fun.
This looks like a fun craft, I’m going to try it. I especially like the Mandarin vocabulary that goes with it, and it’s so helpful that you write it in both Pinyin & characters. I was pleased to see I remembered 2 of the words (we’ve only just started learning Mandarin as a family this year!), ‘small’ and ‘snake’. Can I ask if you have a special keyboard for typing the characters?
My kids and students had fun working on this craft project as well. I hope your kids enjoy it, too. If you have a mac you just need to add pinyin – traditional or pinyin – simplified to keyboard language then you will be able to key in pinyin and select the Chinese character that you need. As for PC I recommend to follow the steps here on pinyinjoe http://www.pinyinjoe.com/windows-7/win7-pinyin-setup-p2-fanti.htm to set up. Hope it helps. I think it is wonderful that you are learning a language as a family.
I have checked the links are working now. The lucky phrases are with the coloring pages. They are hands-on activities that children can work on with Chinese Lunar New Year culture learning.
Very cute and a nice project for older kids. This would have been much easier for me that my sad attempt at a sock puppet snake. He as an ugly lil critter, lol
I did it at home with my two kids (7 and 9) and they had fun with it. I also did it with a group of mixed age children (3-9) and they were happy with this funny snake. A couple of the young ones cut the snake head off and the easy fix was to do it again.:) The sock puppet idea sounds a lot of fun.
This looks like a fun craft, I’m going to try it. I especially like the Mandarin vocabulary that goes with it, and it’s so helpful that you write it in both Pinyin & characters. I was pleased to see I remembered 2 of the words (we’ve only just started learning Mandarin as a family this year!), ‘small’ and ‘snake’. Can I ask if you have a special keyboard for typing the characters?
My kids and students had fun working on this craft project as well. I hope your kids enjoy it, too. If you have a mac you just need to add pinyin – traditional or pinyin – simplified to keyboard language then you will be able to key in pinyin and select the Chinese character that you need. As for PC I recommend to follow the steps here on pinyinjoe http://www.pinyinjoe.com/windows-7/win7-pinyin-setup-p2-fanti.htm to set up. Hope it helps. I think it is wonderful that you are learning a language as a family.
I had a try today with my 8 and 10 years old students. They enjoyed it very much. Thanks for the wonderful share!
I was so glad to know that your students enjoyed the project. Let’s always keep learning fun! ~Miss Panda
I have checked the links are working now. The lucky phrases are with the coloring pages. They are hands-on activities that children can work on with Chinese Lunar New Year culture learning.