Inside: Learn about the stages of scissor skills development in preschoolers and hone their scissor skills with these engaging cutting activities.
The journey of scissor skills development in children involves going through different stages, starting from basic tasks and moving on to more complicated ones. Starting with simple grasping exercises, children advance to cutting straight lines, curves, and shapes. Understanding this progression is important for us to guide our little learners toward scissor mastery.
In this blog post, we'll explore the journey of scissor skills development in kids. We'll also share five simple cutting activities to help children hone their scissor skills. Through these guided cutting practices, children refine their fine motor control, ultimately gaining confidence in independent scissor use.
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Scissor Skills Development in Preschoolers
1. Introducing the scissors
Teach kids how to use scissors safely by showing them how to hold the scissors properly - with their thumb in the smaller hole and their fingers in the larger hole, nail of thumb facing up and the blades pointing away from the body.
Also, introduce these essential safety rules for proper scissor handling:
- Keep fingers away from the blades while cutting.
- Stay focused and keep their eyes on the blades while cutting.
- Cut away from themselves and others, never towards themselves or anyone else.
- Always use scissors while not moving, like standing still or sitting down.
- Put scissors away safely after use.
- Immediately report any accidents or injuries involving scissors to an adult.
2. Grasping skills and building hand strength
Start with simple grasping exercises using easy-to-handle children’s scissors. Practice opening and closing the scissors without cutting to build hand strength and coordination.
3. Cutting straight lines
Begin with cutting short straight lines on paper. Demonstrate how to guide the scissors along the line with controlled and deliberate movements. As they gain confidence, gradually increase the challenge by introducing longer straight lines to cut.
Related: Check out this Raindrop Shapes cutting practice printable - perfecting for your beginning cutters to practise snipping short straight lines.
4. Cutting curved lines
Try cutting curved lines next to improve control. Show how to move the scissors along the curves smoothly.
5. Cutting along dotted lines
Provide worksheets with dotted straight or curved lines for children to cut along. This helps them refine their cutting skills by following a designated path.
6. Cutting simple shapes
Introduce cutting basic shapes such as circles, squares and rectangles. This helps children learn shapes while practising cutting.
7. Cutting complex shapes
Move on to more complex shapes like triangles, stars, diamonds, etc. Reinforce the concept of the start and finish points during cutting.
8. Cutting patterns
Introduce cutting patterns such as zigzags or wavy lines. This step challenges children to adapt their cutting technique to different patterns, honing cutting skills.
9. Cutting out small pictures
Incorporate activities that involve cutting out smaller and more intricate shapes, promoting fine motor skill development. This can include cutting out pictures from magazines or pamphlets.
10. Precision cutting
Practice cutting along precise lines, perhaps in activities that involve creating specific objects or intricate designs. This helps refine fine motor skills and attention to detail.
Related: 12 pincer grasp activities to boost your children’s pincer grasp skills, an important fine motor skill for young children.
5 Simple Scissor Activities to Encourage Scissor Skills Development
1. Playdough sculpting
In this fun playdough activity, children can use the scissors to cut the dough into various shapes and sizes, allowing for endless sculpting possibilities. Additionally, children can use scissors to trim the excess dough and refine details on their dough sculptures.
2. Making a collage
Get creative with scissors! Cut out shapes, textures, and patterns from magazines, coloured paper, or fabric. It's a fun way to improve hand control, improve scissor skills and express yourself artistically.
3. Toilet roll haircut
Draw a face on a toilet roll and make snips along the top of the toilet roll to create the ‘hair’. Children will have a blast pretending to be hair stylists as they cut the rolls and practise their scissor skills at the same time.
Related: Check out this fun Haircut Number Game printable, where children can learn counting while practising their cutting skills at the same time!
4. Follow the paper lines
Practising scissor skills by cutting along the dotted straight, curved and zigzag lines, such as straight, curved, and zigzag lines to improve precision and hand-eye coordination. By carefully tracing and cutting along these lines, individuals can develop mastery over various cutting techniques, enhancing their ability to manipulate scissors with accuracy and control.
5. Paper Plate Fringe
This is another fun cutting activity using a paper plate. Children make short snips along the edge of the plate, creating a fringe effect. Afterwards, they can paint the plate and transform it into a lion or bear face for more crafting fun. This fun cutting and painting activity not only sharpens cutting skills but also inspires imaginative expression.
Frequently Asked Questions about Scissor Skills Development
Scissor skills typically begin to develop around the ages of 2 to 3 years old, although the exact age can vary from child to child. At this stage, children may start by simply grasping scissors and imitating cutting motions. As they grow and develop, usually by around age 4 or 5, they become more proficient in using scissors to cut along lines and shapes with greater precision. By age 6 or 7, most children have developed the fine motor control and coordination necessary for more complex cutting tasks. However, it's important to remember that scissor skills development varies, so the age at which scissor skills fully develop is different for each child.
Using scissors is crucial for children's development, fostering fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and spatial awareness. It encourages creativity, problem-solving, and independence, laying the foundation for future tasks like writing and drawing.
Teaching scissor skills to children involves teaching them how to handle scissors safely, demonstrating the correct way to cut with scissors and starting with simple cutting activities. Gradually introduce more complex cutting activities, following the pace of their scissor skills development, to refine fine motor skills and attention to detail.
Get Started with Your Child's Scissor Skills Development
Mastering scissor skills is not just about cutting paper; it's about fostering creativity, fine motor development, and confidence in young learners. From simple grasping exercises to intricate cutting patterns, each step in the scissor skills development journey plays a crucial role in a child's development.
And as we embark on this journey, it's important to remember to adapt the pace based on your child's progress, ensuring a supportive and positive learning environment every step of the way.
Denine Hicks says
Hi! Thanks for this overview of cutting skills. As a teacher of 2 and 3 year olds, I think it would be helpful for parents to see pictures of how children should hold the scissors (and also maybe ways they *try* to hold scissors!) Also explain that the child needs to *move the paper* -- not the scissors-- when cutting. Kids often end up with the scissors pointing in all sorts of crazy directions.
Young children will needs to spend LOTS of time (months!) just snipping little cuts (just closing the scissors once) -- like the TP tube activity -- before they are ready to cut anything that requires them to open the scissors again, push them forward and make another cut. Cutting across long 1" strips of heavier paper (construction paper, cardstock, etc.) is a great snipping exercise since it only requires one cut.