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Language

Ideas to learn and make.

Craft

Paper chain craft

Paper chain settings

Style

Colour-in prints the cut lines and nothing else, so you can colour the strips in or cut them from your own paper — and it uses almost no ink.

Colours & order

Tap a colour to edit it. The strips print in this order. A custom colour picks its own grey for black-and-white printing, so two similar colours may print the same.

Strip 1 colour

Strip width

8 strips per page.

Print options
Advanced settings

Live worksheet preview
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CUT · LOOP · GLUEPaper chainCut, loop and link in the order shown.1GLUE2GLUE3GLUE4GLUE5GLUE6GLUE7GLUE8GLUEPrint Joeyprintjoey.comCreated with Print Joey — printjoey.com
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How to make your paper chain

  1. Cut the strips

    Three cut paper strips in red, yellow and teal, beside a pair of scissors

    Print the template and cut along the dashed lines.

  2. Make a loop

    A red paper strip curled into a loop, with the glue tab held under one end

    Bring the ends together to make a loop and glue them.

  3. Link the next strip

    A yellow strip threaded through a finished red loop, not yet glued

    Thread the next strip through the first loop before gluing it.

  4. Keep adding

    A finished chain of red, yellow, blue, green and purple paper loops

    Keep adding strips until your chain is as long as you like!

Quick guide

How it works

Turn a page of colourful strips into a chain you can hang across a room. Each strip prints with a dashed cut line and a marked glue tab, so the only tools are scissors and a glue stick. Print it again for a longer chain.

Choose how the strips print and how many fit on the page, then download the template as a PDF.

  1. Choose a style: colour, a pattern, or ink-friendly colour-in outlines.

  2. Choose six, eight or ten strips on the page.

  3. Show or hide the cutting guides and the numbered glue tabs.

  4. Download and print on A4 or US Letter paper.

  5. Cut along the dashed lines, then loop, glue and link.

Teaching tip

Using these worksheets in teaching

Linking loops is an early lesson in repeating a unit: the chain grows by exactly one link each time, which makes it a natural thing to count along, and to predict from. Making a paper countdown chain — one link a day, removed each morning — turns that counting into a visible measure of time passing, which is easier for a young child to hold on to than a calendar.

Frequently asked questions

  • Can I use coloured paper instead?

    Yes. Choose the “Colour-in” style and print on plain paper, then use the sheet as a guide to cut strips from your own coloured paper. That also uses far less ink than the colour version.

  • How do I make a longer chain?

    Print the page as many times as you like — every sheet adds six to ten more links. Choosing the narrower “Slim” width fits ten strips on the page instead of six, so each sheet adds a few more.

  • What is the glue tab for?

    It is the end you put the glue on. Curl the strip round until the tab sits under the other end, then press. Thread the next strip through the finished loop before you glue it.

  • What age is this craft for?

    Four and up. Younger children usually need help with the cutting; the looping and gluing is the part they can do on their own.

Related tools

Last reviewed: July 2026. Worksheet content is generated by deterministic algorithms and covered by automated correctness tests — no AI-generated answers.