Super Mom Hacks

The Best DIY Fidget Toys (Easy To Make!)

Beaded Snakes: The Best DIY Fidget Toys We’ve Found

Do your kids like having something to fidget with as much as mine do? If so, making your own homemade DIY fidget toys is a fun family activity for a rainy afternoon or a day of summer camp at home. And if you already have kids’ crafting supplies, there’s a decent chance you might already have everything you need to make DIY fidget toys with household items. If not, the supplies you’ll need should be inexpensive and easy to get.

As the popularity of fidget spinners in recent years shows, many kids enjoy having something to play with in their hands – not just those with ADHD, on the autism spectrum, etc. And making your own DIY fidget toys can be a great afternoon activity when we’re all stuck at home this summer.

DIY fidget toys for ADHD and DIY sensory toys for autism have been staples on many families’ back-to-school lists for a long time:

Why ALL kids can benefit from fidget toys:

Moreover, with all the disruptions to learning in recent months, kids’ stress levels are through the roof. Which makes DIY fidget toys for anxiety a great stress-reliever for littles as school approaches again, and DIY fidget toys for school a must-have item on your kiddos’ supply lists.

Plus, lacing pony beads onto cord, string, or plastic lace is a great way for all kids to work on fine motor skills and concentration, while learning about colors and patterns.

After a week of “camp” at my mama’s house, my two girls have had lots of rainy afternoons to go crazy with all the pony beads and plastic lacing odds and ends I’d collected. And hands-down, their FAVORITE fidget toys from all their beading adventures have been the beaded “slither snakes” and the beaded “slider snakes.”

So I thought I’d share step-by-step instructions for how to make a beaded snake with you here, including ✅ several (free!) downloadable patterns for beaded snakes.

Back-to-school time will be here before you know it. And along with crayons, pencils, and glue sticks, have you thought about fun DIY fidget toys? They're a great way to help keep kids calm, focused, and ready to learn!Click To Tweet

Easy-To-Make DIY Fidget Toys For School

DIY fidget toys are fun to make, and will help kids stay calm and focused when school starts. These cute beaded snakes are my kids' fave, and easy to make.

What you’ll need:

Must-have supplies:


Optional, but nice to have:


How to Make a Baby Slider Snake

This is a good first project for anyone who’s never done a beading project before. You’ll get to practice all the basic techniques you’ll use for the larger beaded slither snake and beaded slider snake as you make it.

Why do I call it a “slider snake”? Because you can slide the beads back and forth when you’re done.

Supplies you’ll need for a baby slider snake

Step-by-step Beaded Baby Slider Snake instructions:

First you need to make a lark’s head knot:

Fold your cord in half to make a loop at the middle of your cord, and use a lark’s head knot to secure your cord to your anchor.

Now you’re ready to start beading!

  1. Lay out your beads in order. (If you have a piece of felt or a felt tray to put them on, that will keep them from rolling around. Otherwise, this is a good project for a corner of floor by a window, which is where the girls and I worked at my mama’s house.)
  2. Lay out the two tail-ends of your anchored cord so it’s easy to tell which end is on your left, and which end is on your right. Pick up your first bead, and slide the right-side tail through the hole first, pushing it through from right side to left side. Then slide the left-side tail THROUGH THE HOLE IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION (in other words, into the side that the other tail just came out of, and out of the side that the other tail started on). By now, the piece of cord that was on the right side at first should be sticking out the left side of the bead, and the piece of cord that started on the left side should be sticking out the right side of the bead.
  3. Pull the two ends of cord tight so the bead slides up next to the anchor. Pick up your next bead and put the new right-side tail through the bead from right to left, then the new left-side tail through in the opposite direction (left to right). Pull tight again.
  4. Repeat with all remaining beads in your pattern.

Once you’ve added all your beads, you need to know how to finish your slider snake:

If you want to be able to slide the rows on your snake back and forth, then you need to leave a little extra space at the end of your snake, before you knot off your cords.

You can use whatever kind of knot you like, so long as it stays tight. For beaded projects where I want to leave that extra space for sliding, I find it easiest to wrap the two cords around my finger, take the loop off my finger, push the ends through the loop, and then pull them tight – so that the knot is secure, but there’s still some distance between the knot and your final beaded row.

 

How to make a full-sized slider snake

 

These are the two full-sized slider snakes that Kimmie made for herself and Essie. Sliding rows of 3 beads back and forth, one row at a time, is oddly satisfying – making these beaded snakes the perfect DIY fidget toys for adults and kids alike. The basic techniques are the same as what I described above for the baby slider snake; you’ll just need more beads.

These bigger slider snakes have 23 rows/65 beads total. You can make them with blocks of color, as you see here – or with a single stripe down the back – or with alternating skinny stripes – or whatever you like. (Note that two of your beads should be a different color, for the eyes.)

For plenty of fun pattern ideas for these beaded snakes, as well as printable patterns you can CUSTOMIZE to make your own color combinations, click here to access my FREE beaded snake pattern files!

And unlike the baby slider snake, you can get away without an anchor keyring or clip on this snake. If you decide to skip the anchor, then start at the tail end of the snake instead of the head.

Supplies you’ll need for a full-sized slider snake

Step-by-step Beaded Slider Snake instructions:

How to make a full-sized slither snake

Unlike the slider snakes described above, the rows on slither snakes don’t slide back and forth; they’re fixed. That makes these snakes perfect for twirling the beads between your fingers, rolling your hands across the rows (great for a mini-massage if your hand hurts from too much writing!), or slithering across your arm or leg.

Also, because these beads DON’T slide up and down by rows, this project is perfect for some plastic lacing or other plastic beading string, if you have some. Using plastic lacing is much easier for littler hands and less-experienced beaders, as the beads won’t slide around so much while you’re trying to form the rows.

Supplies you’ll need for a full-sized slither snake

Step-by-step Beaded Slither Snake instructions:

The basic technique is the same, whether your rows are one bead wide or 10: thread your tail on the right side through first, right to left, and then thread the other tail through in the opposite direction.
Don’t pull the tails too tightly at the end of each row, or your beading will start to curl up on itself, as is happening here. If that happens, gently loosen as many rows as you need to, and/or just undo and redo them.

 

Have you and your kids made fidget toys for school before? What are your family’s favorite DIY fidget toys? Let us know in the comments!

 

And don’t forget, you can download your FREE DIY fidget snake pattern files by filling out this form:

 

If you liked these step-by-step directions for the best DIY fidget toys we’ve found, please share by pinning this image!

      

 

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