Cutting activities exercise the hand muscles needed to properly manipulate a pencil in a mature tripod grip. I just discovered that there is a proper way to hold scissors to fully exercise these muscles (hence the reason for this post). The thumb and middle finger should be in the handles of the scissors, the index finger will stabilize the handle on the outside, and fingers four and five should be curled into the palm.
Here are some good scissor activities:
- cutting play dough
- cutting staws (you can then lace the pieces onto string or yarn to make a necklace or bracelet)
- making fringe on paper
- cutting junk mail
- Kumon cutting books
- DLTK's scissor skills printable worksheets
If you have additional ideas for scissor practice, please leave me a comment!
12 comments:
My son loves practicing cutting! I cut long, thin strips of paper and draw lines across the short way and then he cuts on the lines. we call them snip strips! we think he's going to be a lefty, though, so it's a bit difficult to show him proper technique! i try to sit across from him, then it looks like we're doing the same thing!
I LOVE the Kumon book series! We have all of them and Maddie loves to take them out and play school! Her favorite thing to cut though are the long strips of paint color chips. They are a perfect weight, colorful and already have lines to follow on them!
Thank you for the post! So far all our experiments with scissors were really frustrating. Anna wants to cut, but her safety scissors fail her. In fact, they fail me unless I hold them perfectly straight. Perhaps experimenting with the grip will help.
Scissors are on sale at Staples this week, a 2 pack for $1.
cutting playdoh is the best for building those muscles! :)
we love cutting up old scrapbook paper and adding it to our collage box!
I also make different lines and have her cut them.
We did start with some of the cute Kumon book activities to build G's confidence & control. But he will never practice just for the sake of practicing. He does choose to use scissors a lot, though (he has full access to several pairs) whenever they are needed.
Now he grabs a pair to open granola bars and other packaged snacks.
He uses them all the time to cut out magazine pictures or printouts to make stick puppets or to put in his own books or lapbooks. Many times I'll see him using them to make things to support his play, like small flags and even brown paper cut into a hundred tiny pieces as dirt.
Thanks for this post. It is a skill we have been working on. Do you use a certain type of scissors? My daughter has a tough time opening them back up.
Having an older sibling really encourage my MO to want to try more. It's hard for their little hands. But seeing his brother having fun helped him keep on going.
They both love love love attacking the Sunday paper. They find the cartoon section the best. The preschooler likes to just make snips and cut a page into tiny pieces. It's a pain to clear up but he loves it. The K one loves to cut out pictures he likes.
We've also done the strips things and made a lion mane lol
This is exactly what I needed today. My son needs serious work with fine motor skills and always enjoys cutting. Thanks!
Fiskars scissors! Those are the key. The same ones that are on sale right now for school supplies.
My kids love cutting up scrap paper. We've also cut up paper into little pieces to make collages and mosaics. That's always popular.
I know there's a website that has lots of scissors practice sheets. I think if you search for Childcareland maybe you might find it.
Emily really enjoyed the Kumon cutting workbooks (she had received some for Christmas last year). They were great! So... are you not supposed to have your index finger inside the handle of the scissors? Just the thumb and middle finger? If so, I've been doing it all wrong!
We have a bunch of different child scissors and some are better than others. I leave them all out for the kids to experiment with and they have their favorites. They aren't specific brands though.
I had the grip all wrong too.
My daughter finds it easier to cut straws and play dough than to cut paper.
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