Early Scissor Success!

Learning to snip is an important first step for scissor skills. 

Preparation:

1. Find a pair of safety scissors designed for children.  Make sure to provide your child with left handed scissors if he or she is a leftie!
2. Encourage the proper grasp using a thumbs up approach.
3. Try to get him or her to hold the paper or material with his or her opposite hand.

Let's Get Snipping:

• Heavier weight paper such as an index card or construction paper will foster success as your child learns to hold it with one hand and cut with the other. Start with a small strip of paper one inch wide by four inches long and have him or her cut it into pieces!  Your child will feel a sense of mastery with the many small pieces of paper on the table!
• Snip along the bottom of the paper to make grass or draw a large face and add hair by snipping at the top of the head. 
• Materials other than paper make snipping fun.  Try snipping straws, playdoh and the packaging peanuts. 



We're making playdoh soup!




It's fun to make the straws "Pop" all over the table!



Who doesn't like making a mess?!

Once your child has mastered snipping, move on to cutting simple, straight lines.  Paint sample squares are great for learning to adhere to a line. 



The white lines serve as nice guidelines between the different colors. 



Use the pieces to create a colorful picture!

Continue to practice cutting straight lines and next week we'll move onto mastering angles and simple shapes! Be sure to share your snipping masterpieces with us!