Slithering Snakes

OK, so they don't really slither, but they are still cool!

I've had that cutie sitting in one of my drawers for years. I made it long ago when I did a unit on snakes. I've always wanted to make them again with another class, but I could never fit it into a theme. Since this is my last week with my kids, I thought it would be the perfect time to do it. It doesn't really go with this week's camping theme, but if you are camping in the woods, you might come across a snake, right? So I bought some large pipe cleaners at Michaels. They come in a box of 50 for $9.99, but if you use a coupon it's not so bad. I started by bending one end of the pipe cleaner into a little oval shape and secured it by twisting it. I did this to all of them so the kids wouldn't have to do it, but I'm sure they were capable.

The kids chose 2 colors of pipe cleaners and twisted the oval parts together to form the head of the snake.

Then they twisted the rest of the pipe cleaners together.

They were actually very good at this. I thought they would be all loose, but they did a great job at keeping them tight. I cut out forked tongues from construction paper and the kids dipped the end into craft glue and stuck it to the inside of the mouth.

Then they added a couple wiggle eyes to the top part of the head.

I loved how they looked as I piled them up to dry!

Oh, how the kids had fun with them when they were dry! You can pose them in any position.

So cute, right? And I even used a few of the pipe cleaners to make fish for our camping site in dramatic play!

Fun Fact: When a snake's mouth is full, it has to extend its trachea out of its mouth in order to keep breathing.