Year of the Snake Crafts for Kids

This year’s Lunar New Year marks the beginning of the year of the snake. Most people see snake as a negative because they are thought to be secretive, devious and jealous, but they can also be intuitive, diligent and persuasive. Celebrate the year of the snake at home or in the classroom with these fun ideas.

Top Marks has a simple spiral snake you can paint or decorate with markers for Lunar New Year. Since it’s showing dots you could also easily do this with dot markers.

Miss Panda Chinese has another printable spiral snake with a face you can color in and decorate. You can also print it on red paper. That page also has some words in Chinese you can practice while you craft.

Red Ted Art has collected all of their snake themed crafts into one page so you can pick out a few to try. One of my favorites is this folded paper snake from Craftiments, which uses strips of construction paper for the body and a painted piece of cardboard tube for the head.

Or use little cups and tissue paper to make a super cute snake puppet with this tutorial from Alpha Mom. This one is so fun for kids to make and to play with. If doing this one in a classroom, each child can make one cup and you can put them together to make a class snake decoration.

Xiao Panda Preschool has some cute Chinese zodiac printables on Teachers Pay Teachers, and you can get lots of ideas from her blog about Chinese New Year activities for preschool. You could also add a zodiac animals puzzle or adorable mini animals to your classroom for the season.

And while this one has nothing specific to do with Lunar New Year, I wanted to share this tutorial for making salt dough snakes from Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls. It’s easy and fun to do and kids can paint them or decorate them in different ways.

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Celebrate the Year of the Dragon

Human brains are pretty amazing, allowing us to think, feel, create, communicate, move and more. But humans aren’t the only animals with cool brains, as Crab Museum explains in the book The No-Brainer Brain Explainer (illustrated by Bruno Valasse).

This book, aimed at kids in grades 1-4, is colorful and silly but also educational about how brains actually work, with billions of neurons sending electrical and chemical signals around the body.

“Everything we think, feel and experience comes from an electrical relay race, with neurons passing chemical batons to each other,” the book says. “The constant chatter of billions of brain cells creates your entire world.”

The book compares the brains of mammals to those of crabs (the book is “written” by a crab after all) and notes that crabs have fewer neurons and of course are much smaller, but they have separate parts of their brains that control their eyes and their legs. Crabs are also capable of remembering things, using tools and solving puzzles.

Some animals’ brains allow them to know more about their world in different ways from humans, such as spiders being sensitive to vibrations in their webs and catfish having an amazing sense of taste, with taste sensors all over their bodies.

It notes that 95 percent of brain activity goes toward things we do unconsciously, like breathing, walking and catching a ball flying toward us. It also talks about dreams, memory, how our emotions try to predict the future, where brains came from and fun facts about brains. For example, did you know a sperm whale is believed to have the biggest brain of any creature that’s even lived? Their brains weigh 18 pounds, compared to just 2.5 pounds for humans.

Information on what creatures have the smallest brains, the toughest brains, the most brains and those who actually eat their own brains will delight kids (and maybe gross them out a little bit). They’ll also enjoy learning about the mycelium network of fungi, which is like a brain without a body, and slime molds, which are like a brain without a brain.

It ends talking about why human brains are so special because we’ve found ways to work together, communicate and build communities on a scale bigger than any other animal.

Kids and adults alike will enjoy this colorful, silly and informational book about brains!

About the book: 64 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Wide Eyed Editions. Suggested retail price $19.99.

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