Cutting Boot Camp! (scissor practice)

Last week we did a fun little art activity that required cutting and my preschoolers did not handle it well! I decided to do a little 3 day "boot camp" to help get them on track. It was amazing to see the difference by the end of the week! With your child it is not necessary to do this in three days. don't move on until they have mastered a step:) My preschoolers all had the idea, they just needed to fine tune:)

3 steps:

1. Single Cuts

I pre-cut these strips of paper and then the child added the white circle stickers. Great fine motor warm up before cutting.

I did this one on one with each child during work time so that I could really watch how they handled the scissors. I reminded them to keep their thumb facing up:) and had them each cut between the stickers.

This is a great first step because they only have to cut once and you can really focus on just the proper hand position:) After they cut them all apart I had them pick up each sticker and cut it in half again. They loved it!

2. Cutting Through

Next step is to learn to push the scissors through to cut on a line. I just drew these with a sharpie and a ruler:)

 Again, thumb on top:)

If cutting through the entire length is too difficult for them you can cut the whole paper in half:)

3. Turning While Cutting

I used a little plate to trace and a sharpie to make these. The children used the white stickers to cover the circle.

Once the circle is filled with stickers the child cuts in the side and then follow the line and tries to cut each white sticker in half. 

This could be done with smaller and different shapes to add more difficulty:)