Chinese New Year Kid Crafts: How to Make a Felt Snake

The Chinese New Year is filled with many different activities and events for the whole family. During the Chinese New Year, there are many craft activities that children can do to symbolize the Chinese New Year celebration and to learn about the holiday. If you want your child to make a felt snake for the Chinese New Year festivities, here is a great simple way to make one.

You are going to need some supplies to get started on your Chinese New Year craft. For the felt snake you will need red felt, ruler, black marker, glue, a pair of wiggly eyes, chenille stem, and clothespins. You can get all of these supplies at your local craft store for about 10 dollars. The first thing you want to do is lay a ruler out and set it along the longest side of the felt. Using your black marker, you need to draw a line that is the length of the ruler and then cut the felt strip. Lay the chenille stem down so it is in the middle of the felt and put a layer of glue along the long edge of the felt. Fold the felt over top of the chenille stem so the long edges go together. Use your clothespins to hold the felt together while you cut about 1/4" wide by 3/4" long piece of felt. To make the tongue of the snake, you will need to cut a "V" into the short end of the felt and then take the opposite short end of the felt and glue it onto the snake end that is not glued shut. You then will glue the tongue into place and take your two eyes and glue them into place right above where the tongue was glued. The glue might take 12 hours to dry and you can let it sit overnight if you prefer. Once the glue is completely dry you can remove the clothespins and then wind the snake around a stick or whatever type of object you want.

This is a very easy and simple way for a child to make a felt snake that is celebratory of the Chinese New Year. As always with crafts involving small objects and glue, you want to make sure you supervise your child and also help the child with this craft as needed. The snake is a great way to also teach your child about the history of the snake and the influence the dragon has on the Chinese culture.