Scissor Activities

On 6-11-13, I posted an entry on scissor types, and at the end of that blog entry, I said that I would be posting an entry regarding some scissor activities at a later date.  So, here it is...

***Remember to have your child hold the scissors correctly with the correct forearm position:  the thumb is ALWAYS up.

-cut short, random snips in paper or construction paper.  Have your child cut snips along the edge of a piece of paper (like “fringe” or “grass”).

-cut across colored construction paper strips: start with 1” wide strips so that they only need to make a single snip and then gradually increase the width so that it takes more than one snip to cut across it.  I often will then have the kids glue the pieces that they cut onto something (trace a basic shape and have them glue the paper they snipped into the shape outline) or glue the pieces on paper to make a design of their choice.

-practice following a line when cutting.  Start with short, wide lines and gradually decrease the width of the line and increase the length.

-glue 2 pipe cleaners, yarn or craft sticks on paper and have your child cut between them.  You can also use wikki stixx.  Vary the width between them to make the paths wider or narrower.  Curve the paths or make them zig zag.

-use a marker and make straight, curved and angled lines on paper for your child to cut along.  Gradually decrease the size of the curves and angles to encourage more precise cutting.

-cut simple shapes.  Start with larger diameter shapes and decrease to smaller sizes.  Straight lines are always easier to cut than curved and angled lines.

**use stiff paper such as construction paper when first practicing cutting, as kids are more successful with it.  You can also work on increasing hand strength when cutting by using stiffer paper such as poster paper, card stock or card board.

Other activities that enhance scissor skills:
-pick up items using tongs, tweezers or clothespins.  Aluminum foil balls, cotton balls, beads, small toys

-play with squirt guns, bulb syringes/squeezers, hole punch, medicine dropper

-roll play dough or clay into long strips (“snakes”) and cut into pieces using a scissors

-a higher level skill that might be fun to try with some older kids is to have them use a scissors to cut along a simple dot to dot picture.  This is also an excellent motor planning/sequencing activity.