At a Glance
This Build a Snake craft has preschool, kindergarten and other young learners cutting out the pieces and sticking them together to create their own slithering reptile. The hands-on activity strengthens scissor skills, fine motor control and concentration, while opening up some conversations about snakes and the many habitats they call home. Color and black-and-white templates are both included.
If your little ones love animals or jungle-themed projects, this Build a Snake Craft is a brilliant hands-on activity to spark their creativity.
It’s simple to prep, satisfying to stick together and packed with opportunities to practise those cutting, sequencing, and design skills. Kids tend to just love anything wiggly!
Perfect for preschool, kindergarten or older children, this printable craft fits beautifully into animal units, jungle themes, reptile studies, or just a fun afternoon of fine-motor practice.
This simple activity is great for developing your child’s cutting and sticking skills, and an awesome chance to practice some pencil control and fine motor skills as well!
And this lovely cut and paste craft is brilliant for young children to use because it’s so simple for them to put together!
There’s a color and a plain template – so your little ones can choose the colors and decorate their cute little snake as they wish.
If you’re a teacher, this simple craft could also make an brilliant woodland animal themed activity for the classroom!
Other cut and paste crafts you may want to check out:
Or you can browse all the other printable cut and paste crafts here.
What Skills Can Your Children Learn And Practice?
When making this snake, your children will have the chance to practice and develop some skills such as:
- Cutting Skills – if you feel they’re ready, you can let them have a go at cutting out the pieces all by themselves – they’ll need to be careful and have good scissor control if they want to cut out the pieces neatly
- Fine Motor Skills – when they’re sticking and picking up and moving the parts and placing them where they need to go
- Pencil Control – if you print off the black and white version they can practice their pencil control and develop hand strength through coloring.
This simple craft will also give them a chance to practice their concentration and perseverance skills as they may find it tricky to place the pieces exactly where they want them to go.
How To Prepare This Simple Snake Craft
First you’re going to want to download the snake templates by clicking on the download button at the bottom of the page – I’ve made a color and a black and white version.
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Other materials you’ll need:
- Safety scissors
- Card stock or Craft paper
- Some good glue
- Some coloring pencils or pens or other artsy materials
Once you’ve downloaded the templates, you’ll need to print them off onto paper or card.
Then, you can cut them out. Or if you’d like your children to get some cutting practice, you can let them have a go.
Then you can stick all the pieces together to make the snake.
It can be really nice to let your kids have a bit of free rein here and see if they can work it out – kind of like a puzzle.
There’s not too many pieces to this one (snakes don’t many body parts…) but if they’re struggling, the order I’d do it in is:
- Stick the body parts together
- Stick the mouth on the head
- Stick the eyes on the head
- Stick the head onto the body
(I expect you could have worked that out but I do like to be thorough…)
The finished one should look something like this:
If you want to, you could always laminate the pieces before putting them together and use them as a puzzle. That way, the different parts would be kept nice and they can use them again and again.
After that you’re all done!
Let your kids practice their cutting and sticking skills in a simple and fun way!
But Wait… There’s Also A Black And White Snake Template!
I’ve also made a black and white version which would be an awesome way for your little ones to practice their coloring skills and personalize their snake in their own way!
So why not crack out the pens, crayons, paints or collage (or all of them if you’re feeling adventurous) and let your kids get creative!
Some Other Ways You Could Use This Snake Craft
Classroom Display or Bulletin Board:
If you’re a teacher, you could create a long “Slithering Through the Jungle” classroom display where every child adds their own snake in a big line. You could also arrange vines, leaves, or flowers around them to build a full jungle scene. It’s a lovely way to show off scissor skills and brighten up your room.
Reptile Study or Science Unit:
If you’re teaching about reptiles, use the craft as part of a lesson on snake habitats, camouflage, or body movement. After assembling their snakes, children can place them in different “habitats” (paper leaves, logs, or sand trays) and talk about where snakes might live and why.
Pattern-Making Challenge:
Using the black-and-white version, encourage children to colour each body segment in a repeating pattern. They can try AB, AAB, ABC patterns, or even invent their own. This ties creative design to early maths in a simple, playful way.
Measurement or Length Activity:
Invite children to measure their finished snakes using cubes, counters, or rulers. Goo way to tie in a bit of math practice!
Storytelling Prompt:
Ask your children to give their snake a name and create a short story about it. Maybe it’s slithering through tall grass looking for treasure, meeting other animals, or trying to find a cozy spot to curl up for the night. Great for language development and imaginative thinking.
I hope your little learners enjoy building their very own slithery friends.
It’s a simple, fun, and educational way to bring a bit of the wild into your day.
I’d love to hear about what they create!
And you can check out more awesome animal activities here!
Enjoy!
