Wiggly Bouncy Snake! A Fun Craft for All Ages!

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October 22, 2024 / DIY / Stem Activities / Marvelous Mechanics Motion / Age 6 - 8 / Bouncing Origami Snake

Let's enter the wonderful world of origami! Make your own super-elastic bouncing little snake and compete with friends and family to see whose snake can bounce the farthest!

Age: 6-8
Time: Less than 30 minutes

Materials Needed:

Coloured card

There we have it – a lovely bit of red paper, all ready for some folding fun! It's a proper vibrant colour, innit? Let's see what sort of crafty creation we can conjure up with this.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

Cut out a square from the coloured card (you'll need a ruler, or you can fold the short edge of the card to align with the long edge and cut). Fold the square card along both diagonals and unfold, leaving two diagonal creases on the card.

A bit of paper folding magic! Someone's carefully folding a piece of red paper into a neat little triangle. It's all rather precise, innit? A proper bit of crafty concentration!

Fold one corner of the card upwards, aligning the corner with the intersection of the two diagonal lines. Fold the remaining part in half twice. Repeat for the other half.

Unfold the paper and repeat step 2 for the other two corners of the square.

Open up both sides of the folded paper backwards, unfolding just one layer.

Two hands with pale pink nails carefully fold a strip of bright red paper in half lengthwise.

At this point, you'll notice two triangular areas at both ends of the paper. Choose one triangular area and fold it up to align with the intersection of the folds on both sides.

Two hands delicately fold the bottom edge of a red piece of paper, likely origami, to create a point or arrow shape.

Lift up both sides of the paper along the creases to give the paper a three-dimensional effect.

Two hands carefully fold the bottom corners of a red piece of paper inwards, likely as part of an origami project.

Turn the paper over. At this stage, the snake's head and tail are done. You'll see many rectangular creases and a centre line on the paper. Starting from the tail end, push the paper inwards along the centre line, stopping at the first rectangular crease near the snake's head.

Hands pinch and shape a folded piece of red paper, appearing to create a more three-dimensional form, possibly a beak or nose-like shape, as part of an origami creation.

Then, pinching the snake's body and head, push the snake's body towards the head.

Two hands manipulate a folded, triangular piece of red origami paper, gently pulling a flap or section outwards.

Repeat the same process on the other side following the previous step.

Two hands fold and shape a piece of red origami paper, creating a small, three-dimensional form with a defined crease or bend in the middle.

Fold the entire snake's body following steps 8 and 9.

Fingers carefully manipulate and fold a section of a red origami creation, which appears to be a segmented or linked structure.

Draw on the eyes, and your spring snake is complete! Time to make it bounce!

Two hands hold a completed red origami mouse, its body made of folded segments and a small, pointed tail. A small, pink origami object is visible in the top left corner.

The Science Behind It:

What is elasticity? Elasticity is the ability of a material to return to its original shape after being subjected to force. In the process of making the snake, the structure formed by folding the paper can store energy. When we apply force to compress the snake, the paper will return to a certain shape due to its elasticity, producing an effect similar to a spring.

Wiggly Bouncy Snake! A Fun Craft for All Ages!

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Materials Needed:

Step-by-Step Instructions:

The Science Behind It:

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