Gravity Snakes

A great, quick, fun and festive activity that throws in a little science are gravity snakes. You can read more about gravity and balance in my previous post. I have seen these in a ton of locations, but the idea is that when balanced, the pull of gravity will pull the “snake” down creating a streamer effect.

You will need a piece of cardstock, straw, silly putty or something similar and a pipe cleaner.  You will draw a swirl pattern on the cardstock. I used a jar to draw the outer circle and free handed the swirl. You can click on the picture and use it as a template.

You can decorate the snake before you cut it out. I always have the kids decorate the opposite side from the lines.  That way they don’t cover the lines or if we need to adjust the cuts the lines aren’t all over their work.

Next you will cut on the lines. (As an aside….if you are having problems with rotated pictures, you can save your rotated pictures as .png files in the paint software)

Now put the pipe cleaner through the straw and keep the structure upright by sticking it in silly putty. I usually trim the pipe cleaner as needed. I like the poster goo that teachers use too (that is what you see in these pictures). I usually put the googly eyes on right before we balance the snake. Now balance your snake.  It will balance on the pipe cleaner and begin to uncoil (due to the pull of gravity). The kids love it.

This is also a great activity if you are like Ticia from Adventures in Mommydom who didn’t have a chair to do the previous activity on balance and center of gravity.  We used our base and measured the center of a popsicle stick and balanced that as well. I did bend over the pipe cleaner a little.

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