Tot School: The Button Snake

I don't post much about B and her lessons in Tot School. To be honest, she often gets left out because I spend so much time with T. She does have lessons that she works with but at this age its more play with special "toys". She does participate in our nature studies, cooking/baking, and read aloud time. I would like to share a view at one of her lessons.

For Christmas this year, I made one of her gifts. I really was at a loss for what to buy her since we have a lot of things left over from when T was small. I decided to make her a Button Snake lesson. I first heard about button snakes while browsing pinterest. As with everything on pinterest, there are lots of different ways to make the same thing. I looked at several and went with a design I found here. I loved the addition of the loop so the child can carry it around easily, yet the fabric pieces will slide right off when the work is finished. Some have buttons at both end, which I think might be better for an older child, but I think B would be discouraged if she had to take them all off when she finished putting them on.

If you would like to make a button snake, you only need one large button (the younger the child, the larger the button needs to be). Sew the button to one end of a long ribbon. If you want a loop at the end just measure the length of ribbon needed to go over the child's hand and then sew it together. I am not a sewer in general, but this was just a few quick stitches. Make sure to sew over it several times so that it is sturdy. Then take some sheets of felt and cut them into small pieces. I chose to just make rectangles. I wanted to use pinking shears to make the edges prettier, but I didn't have any at the time and I was running out of time. I have seen others cut the felt into shapes too. I think shapes would be cute but I felt they might distract my 2 year old. Each piece of felt needs to have a small slit cut into the center just big enough for the button to fit through.

Since I was making this a gift, I decided to make a cute little box to store it in. You could just put it in a basket or on a tray too. This box is just a paper mache box from Michael's craft store. This is where I purchased the button as well. The buttons came in a container with several different sizes in the same color. The container had a lid that looks like a large button. I poked four holes in the top of the box lid and used a string to attach the large button lid to the top. I thought it looked cute and it also would show B what lesson was inside the box without having to open it.

B loves using this lesson, but only for short periods of time. She will put only about 5 pieces of fabric on the snake and then moves on to something else. She especially loves the loop at the end so she can carry it around. I think she'll enjoy this even more the more she uses it. She has a very strong pincher grasp already.