An internal blog post
Many children are entering school without scissor
skills. Some parents are hesitant to
allow their children to use scissors in fear of what they may cut up and other
parents just don’t think about teaching scissor skills. But scissors skills are important in and of
themselves, but developing these fine motor skills also aids in greater skills
in writing.
A fun way to introduce and encourage scissor skills is to
create a snipping station. This is super
easy to set up and children love to spend time there. The last time I set up a snipping station
there were children who choose to spend all their play time at the station!
In a shallow tub or box put in a variety of items for
children to cut. Examples include: scrap
paper, construction paper, cardstock, straws, yarn, ribbon, craft foam, crepe
paper, tissue paper, junk mail, envelopes, store circulars, newspaper, scraps
of fabric, etc. Provide 6-8 pairs of
child scissors (this is a great opportunity to encourage waiting your turn and
sharing). Encourage the children to snip—short
cuts on the edge on the items—and to keep the cut pieces in the bin.
The children are not “making” anything and they are also not
asked to “cut on the line”—this is just an open-ended activity to practice
using scissors. Though it is a perfect opportunity to gently help a child hold
the scissors in the correct position and to encourage them to keep the scissors
in a “thumbs up” position.
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