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Paper Chains

You can do this activity in preparation for a special event, or for no reason other than to have fun together. Playing music while doing this adds to the fun.

Materials

  • Lots of construction paper (actually almost any kind of paper is fine, except newspaper. You’d get inky. Wrapping paper gives an interesting look to this activity.)
  • Scissors
  • An adhesive—either glue sticks or scotch tape. Enough for each adult and child to have their own. Tape is better for most paper.
Preparation: Anyone old enough to use scissors can do the prep work.
  1. Starting at the long side of the paper, cut strips one to two inches wide. Make a lot. Tons. As many as you can stand to make. The more paper strips, the longer the chain.
  2. Lay the pieces out on the table
  3. Get your glue or tape ready!
Make the Chains:
  1. Choose your first strip and glue or tape the ends together.
  2. If gluing, hold it a few seconds until the glue dries and the shape holds.
  3. Add another strip by looping it through the first and gluing its ends together. Now you have two links in your chain.
  4. Continue adding strips.
  5. When the chain is long enough, hang it up!
You can all work on one big chain, or can each make your own chains. You can even link individual chains together if desired.

Variation: use different colored paper and make patterns with the chain links.

 

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