Making Paper Chains
A fun paper crafting project to keep little hands busy.
In this article find a simple cutting, pasting, and decorating project for kids. Use this project to teach sequencing and to encourage reading skills and good habits.
Make a paper chain out of strips of construction paper. This is a simple project. You will need construction paper or bright colored copier paper and glue. Glue sticks are less messy, but I like white school glue. Kids love to pour and smear it and the clean up is easy.
Allow the child to chose several sheets of construction paper in various colors. Starting at the long side of the paper cut strips one to two inches wide. Lay the pieces out in a fan shape and get your glue!
Next chose your first color strip and glue the ends together. Hold it a few seconds until it dries. Now add another strip by looping it through the first and gluing its ends together. Now you have two links in your paper chain. Continue adding colored strips in any pattern.
To teach sequencing use a pattern like red, red, blue, yellow, yellow, green and have the child copy your chain. Or allow the child to glue his in random order until all your paper strips are used. You can cut strips and add links until your chain is as long as you want it. These are great for decorating a bedroom.
To encourage reading have the child write the name of each book he reads on a link. How about a star to decorate a link for every time he remembers to hang up his coat, eat all his vegetables or brush his teeth?
The main benefit to the child though is to learn to cut straight lines with a pair of scissors. For some more preschooler ideas see my article on preschoolers learning at home. For more new paper toy projects see these directions.
