Paper Cup Telephone with a Long String
Two cups joined by a long, looping string form a homemade telephone that carries voices without any electricity.
A4 format (portrait), black outlines on a white background · for home and classroom use
All coloring pages: Phone Coloring Pages
Similar coloring pages: Phone Coloring Pages
What else can you print? Free, no account needed
Custom Name Coloring Pages
Enter your child's name to generate a custom coloring page featuring large outline letters to color and decorate.
Open generator →Connect the Dots Generator
Eight connect-the-dots pictures across three difficulty levels. Features faint outline guides for younger children and dots only for older kids.
Open generator →Printables
Worksheets, tracing lines, mazes and dot-to-dots in A4.
Browse printables →
Two Paper Cups Linked by a String
The picture shows a simple string telephone made from two cone-shaped cups. One cup sits near the top left of the page and the other near the bottom right, each with a rolled rim around its wide opening. A long string runs from the base of one cup to the base of the other, curving across the page in a smooth S shape, with a small knot where it meets each cup. With plenty of white space and only a few large shapes, this is a calm, easy page for younger children.
How Sound Travels Along a String
Sound is a vibration. When someone talks into one cup, the voice makes the flat bottom of the cup vibrate, the vibrations travel along the string, and the second cup turns them back into sound for the listener. For this to work the string has to be pulled straight and tight; a loose, curving string like the one in the drawing soaks up the vibrations before they reach the other end.
Sound usually moves faster through solids than through air, where it travels at roughly 343 metres per second. The English scientist Robert Hooke wrote in 1665 about carrying sound along a stretched wire, more than two hundred years before Alexander Graham Bell patented the electric telephone in 1876.
Natural Colors of the Scene
- First cup: bright red or sky blue, so each handset looks different
- Second cup: a contrasting color such as sunny yellow or green
- Rims: white or a darker stripe of the cup color
- Inside of the cups: a lighter shade of the outside color to show depth
- String: natural beige twine or bright yellow cord