Under £5
15 mins
Ages 4+
Fluffy cloud slime
Three cupboard ingredients and the stretchiest slime you'll ever wash out of a jumper.
Crafts and slime
Wiggly tube snake
Save up your toilet roll tubes for a week and turn them into a long, wiggly snake that slithers along behind you. It's cheap, it's colourful, and the stripes and spots are entirely up to them.
Ages3+
Time45 mins
CostFree
MessSome mess
WhereIndoors
What you need
Keep long string away from babies and toddlers, and don't leave little ones alone with it.
Let's go
Paint or colour every tube with snake patterns. Stripes, zigzags, spots, diamonds, whatever you like.
Pick one tube to be the head and give it eyes, nostrils and a forked tongue. Pick another to be the tail and make it a bit pointy at one end by squashing and taping it.
Once the paint is dry, tie the tail tube tightly to one end of the string. Poking a small hole near the end of the tube makes this easier.
Thread the rest of the tubes onto the string one by one, finishing with the head.
Tie a knot or a loop after the head so you can hold the string, then pull your snake along and watch it wiggle.
Real talk
- Hide the snake under the sofa and pull it out slowly when a grown-up walks in. Screams guaranteed.
- Cut the tubes into shorter rings for an extra-wiggly snake.
- Make a whole family of snakes in different sizes, or a caterpillar with pom-pom feet.
Snake fans?
Lots of zoos, reptile houses and wildlife parks run handling sessions where kids can meet a real snake.
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