Activity Overview
Create a Button Snake out of felt, a button and some ribbon. Young children will enjoy this quiet time activity which teaches the skill of buttoning as well as enhancing fine motor skills.
Bring this activity along to waiting rooms or restaurants or use them in the car to keep young minds and hands active and engaged. Button snakes can be used anytime. We used different shapes and colors of felt for our button snakes so that our littlest ones could practice colors, shapes, counting and buttoning technique all in one!
Materials Needed
- Felt
- Ribbon
- Needle
- Thread
- Large Button
- Scissors
How to Make and Play
- Cut a your felt into 3 inch shapes of your choice. Make a nice stack of about 10 of them or more. Your shapes should be a bit bigger than your button.
- Folding your shapes in half and making a small slit in the center. Use your scissors to make a slit in the center of each of the felt shapes. Test to make certain that your button will fit through this hole.
- Use a needle and thread, sew the button onto one end of the ribbon.
- Slip one shape of prepared felt onto the button snake through the hole, and slide it all the way to the end of the ribbon.
- Tie a knot at the end after the first piece of felt is added. This will create a nice end piece for your snake and allow the other felt pieces to remain on the ribbon until they are unbuttoned off.