DIY Snake Puppet – Junk Modelling with Preschool

With the Year of the Snake upon us, I have a lovely blogger sharing their fantastic Junk Modelling Snake with us today. I welcome Mini Mad Things, who shares how to make a recycled Snake Puppet with you today. I think it is simply adorable and so fun. A great fine motor skills craft for preschoolers and KS1 kids!

A Fun Preschool Snake Junk Modelling Activity

Educational Benefits of making this cute bottle top & cardboard snake craft:

There are soooo many reasons to have a go at this wonderful little snake mariontte… the main one being that it is super fun. But fun aside, here are some more wonderful points:

• Teach children about junk modelling and the “value of trash”
• Fine motor skills/ threading skills
• Sequencing skills (you can create patterns in your bottle top snake!)
• Making your own toys
• Cultural relevance with the Year of the Snake in 2025

But, as mentioned, these snakes are simply fun to make and play with!

About Mini Mad Things

If I had to introduce myself in one word, I would say I am a maker. I grew up in a house where we made things. We learnt to sew and to knit; to saw, hammer and build. We learnt to fix broken things. We were resourceful. All of these skills made me who I am and ignited my love for craft. This passion for making is something I would like to pass on to my children and to others; it is the reason for creating MINI MAD THINGS.

E.g. check out this wonderful printable snake craft here:

Be sure to follow Mini Mad Things on Instagram and do pop over for some amazing Printable Crafts – including a range of amazing Great Artist projects!

Supplies needed for your Recycled Snake Craft

• Thin string or cord (thin enough to feed the smallest of your beads)
• Recycled items – bottle tops and corrugated cardboard are great
• Some beads in different sizes – don’t have beads? Use tin foil scrunched into balls though you will need a pointer needle to “pierce them”
• An embroider needle (or you can make a “needle” from a piece of wire folded in half) – just make sure it fits your bead holes
• Google eyes (though cutting out paper “googly eyes” even better)
• Adults only: heated skewer to make holes into the bottle tops
• Scissors

How to make your Preschool Snake Puppet Marionette

Prepare your recycled “beads”

Begin by drawing around a bottle top on the cardboard. We cut approximately 25 cardboard discs the same size as the milk bottle tops to make the snake body and 5 smaller cardboard discs for the tail. If you want to make your snake longer, just cut more discs!

Making sure all your bottle tops are clean first, make a hole in the middle of each bottle top large enough to allow your cord to be easily threaded through. To make our holes we heated up a metal skewer and melted a hole. Alternatively you could use a sharp point, drill or scissors to carefully make a hole. (Adults please help with this!) Make holes in the middle if each of your cardboard discs.

Start threading your snake and make the snake tongue

To begin making your snake, cut a piece of thin cord, approximately 150cm long.

Thread the embroidery needle and move it into the middle of the cord. (So you now have two pieces of cord 75cm long).

Taking the ends of the cord, thread 4 small plastic beads onto each side and tie knots in the ends to prevent the beads from coming off.

Now thread 8 small beads into your needle making a Y shape tongue for the snake.

Start threading your recycled cardboard snake

Begin threading cardboard discs, bottle tops and wooden beads to make the body of your snake.

Add a wooden bead on the inside of each bottle tops, this creates a space between the bottle top and the next cardboard disc, allowing your snake to undulate.

Use smaller bottle tops/ cardboards towards the tail end of the snake

Continue threading until the end, using smaller bottle tops and cardboard discs to graduate the tail of the snake to a smaller diameter.

Finish off your snake marionette

Add some small beads at the end, tie a knot to secure and trim the excess cord.

Either draw or glue on googly eyes to make eyes for your snake.

Cut a length of cord approx. 100cm long and tie each end onto the snakes head and body making your marionette.

Now let your snake wiggle!

If you loved this post, do pop over to Mini Mad Things and check out some the amazing printables:

Isn’t this simply the most wonderful Recycled Snake Puppet? A bit thank you to my guest blogger Mini Mad Things! Such a wonderful craft for preschoolers – though kids of all ages can enjoy having a go at this! I think this makes a wonderful DIY Snake for the Year of the Snake and Chinese New Year 2025!

If you you fancy some more Year of the Snake Crafts, do take a peak here:

Hope you all have a wonderful crafty day! See you again soon!