Free Printable Build A Snake Craft Template For Chinese New Year
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Celebrate the Year of the Snake with this fun and creative Free Printable Build a Snake activity!
This simple paper craft is perfect for kids and families to enjoy together during the Chinese New Year celebrations.
With colorful, easy-to-cut pieces, it’s a festive way to bring the Chinese Zodiac to life. Keep reading to learn how to download and use this creative printable craft!
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Where are the Free Printable Downloads?
• Find them at the bottom of this post, surrounded by a purple dashed box.
• Tap the purple download link buttons to save the PDF file(s) to your device.
• You can open this type of file with Adobe Reader.
• Printables are available in two sizes—A4 and US Letter (8.5″ x 11″).
• Download the paper size for your printer or print shop.
• Please read our full Terms and Conditions.
Free Printable Build A Snake
During the Chinese New Year, the year’s zodiac animal is celebrated, focusing on its symbolic meanings and attributes.
The Year of the Snake begins on 29 January and ends on 16 February 2025
Making crafts like our free printable build-a-snake activity is a meaningful and festive addition to the celebration.
For even more Chinese New Year crafting, try these next:
Year of the Snake
In the Chinese Zodiac, the snake symbolizes wisdom, intuition, and transformation. It is a mysterious and elegant creature often associated with intelligence, resourcefulness, and charm.
People born in the Year of the Snake are believed to be thoughtful, perceptive, and gracefully able to navigate complex situations.
Your Chinese zodiac is Snake if you were born in one of these years: 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013, and 2025.
Introducing – Shujun the Snake!
Shujun ( 淑俊) is a Chinese name that means warm, virtuous, and handsome. It is also the name of the Chinese god of farming and cultivation.
Regular readers will notice that our Chinese New Year snake differs from our other Free Printable Buildable Characters.
They’re usually anthropomorphic, but that would not work for a snake! Instead, he’s made of a long, narrow body, with three coils wrapped around him and his tail peeping out behind.
Our buildable characters are an excellent activity for kids of all ages, whether at home, at an activity group or club, during homeschooling, or in the classroom!
They help kids with their cutting and pasting skills and allow them to get creative with other materials, too, like sticking on pieces of fabric or sequins or using glitter glue.
You can find links to all our other buildable character sets at the bottom of this post.
2024 was the Year of the Dragon, and we will update all of our Free Chinese New Year Printables with Shujun the Snake, including Coloring Pages, Red Money Envelopes, and Paper Lanterns.
What Is In The Printable Snake Template?
Your download includes all the pieces to assemble Shujun the Snake:
- Head, body, three body coils, and a tail to create your snake.
- Two sizes to choose from:
- Regular size fits on one sheet of paper, creating a snake approximately 6”/15 cm tall.
- Large size spans multiple sheets of paper, creating a 12”/30 cm tall snake.
Our snake is red, an auspicious color in China, representing happiness and good luck.
To add a personal touch, a black-and-white version is available in our Purple Pumpkin Printables Store—perfect for coloring before assembling! (Coming soon)
In fact, two designs are included: patterned, as you see in the full-color version, and plain, so you can draw your own snake pattern designs.
How To Use the Build a Snake Printable
- Download the high-quality PDF file at the end of this post and print as many copies as you need onto white (printer) paper. For best results, use good quality, thick/heavy paper.
- Alternatively, you can use the pieces as a template to trace onto coloured paper or card stock and build a snake with them.
- You can print the free printable at home, school, office, or a Print Shop. Then, cut the pieces out with scissors.
- The build-a-snake printables are suitable for children of all ages; however, the free regular-size template is ideal for older children who are more skilled at cutting or want to hone their fine motor skills.
- The large size should be a lot easier for younger children—or you can cut them out for them. You know your children, so you will know what suits them best.
- Once cut, arrange the pieces to determine where everything goes before sticking them in place with a glue stick or sticky tape.
- We like using this roller glue because it is easy to use and has less sticky mess!
Craft Projects Using our Free Printable Chinese Snake Templates
- Adding Dimension: Mount the snake cut-outs onto a larger piece of construction paper and use other craft materials to embellish it. For example, glitter, craft foam, or tissue paper, to name a few. It’s a perfect activity for art class.
- Laminating: This fun Chinese New Year craft is still possible for tiny kids who can’t yet use scissors! Use a laminator to laminate the printable and cut out each shape, leaving a slight margin around them. Then, stick Velcro Dots to the pieces so the snake can be assembled without cutting or gluing.
- Everybody Loves Puppets: Grab some popsicle sticks and the regular-sized free printable snake to make little puppets for role-playing or storytelling.
- Festive Decorations: Attach several snakes to some ribbon or string and hang them as bunting. They would make incredible decorations for a party or to hang around your classroom. Add black paper to the back of each one for a neater finish.
- Chinese New Year Mobile: Similar to the previous idea, assemble several snakes and our other zodiac animals and glue them back to back with some ribbon in between. Hang them at different lengths on a wire hanger and have a cute decoration.
- Educational Tool: Use the large snake to complement an Asian study unit or teach about Chinese New Year traditions. It’s a fun way to make learning about other cultures and traditions more engaging. Choose the large template to create an eye-catching classroom display!
- Festive Celebrations: Are you hosting a Chinese New Year party? Set up a crafting station with scissors, glue, and printed templates for guests to create snakes. It’s an excellent activity for kids and adults alike! Don’t forget the black-and-white snakes to color in our shop for a customizable option.
- Roll-A-Snake Game: This idea is based on the classic dice game and is so much fun to play—especially for young children!
- To set up, print, and cut enough snake pieces for each player, assign each piece a number—for example, Head (1), Body (2), Top Coil (3), Middle Coil (4), Bottom Coil (5), and Tail (6).
- After rolling the die, the player picks up the corresponding piece to build their snake. If players roll a number for a piece they already have, they skip their turn. The winner is the first player to collect all the snake parts and assemble them!
Other Buildable Characters!
We have lots of other buildable characters that you may like to download:
Free Printable Build a Snake Download
Celebrate the Year of the Snake with this fun and free activity. Click the button below to download your free printable Build A Snake template and start crafting today!
Download Build a Snake Here:
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Visit The Purple Pumpkin Printables Shop for more awesome printables and products! (Opens in new tab.)
The free printables are in PDF format and can be opened with the free-to-use Adobe Acrobat Reader (or other PDF Readers). If the download is a Zip File, it can be opened with WinZip, WinRar, or other software typically bundled on computers. Printables designed and created by The Purple Pumpkin Blog and its Designers are for PERSONAL USE ONLY and NOT FOR RESALE under any circumstances. Please read our full Terms and Conditions. You are welcome to print these free printables at an online print shop or print shop in-store if you don’t have access to a printer; however, some print shops may not print licensed characters. Colors may vary when printing due to different screen and printer settings. You may share this free printable blog post on social media, including Pinterest, and on your blog/website with a link to this blog post. Please DO NOT share the PDF on social media or your blog/website. If you use any of our printables, it would be awesome to know about it! Post a picture on the social media platform you hang out on, and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest. Use the hashtag #TPPBprintables so we can find you!