A few tips about scissor saftey: When your kids are taking the scissors from one spot to another have them hold the closed blade part of the scissors. Even the blade on safety scissors can be sharp (they are made for cutting) so remind your kiddos of that too. Don’t cut anyone else’s paper and especially don’t point the blade at anyone. Last but not least, scissors are only made for cutting paper.
1. Begin with good scissors.
(This is our scissor line up at home. From right to left: Fiskars, the next two are Academics, the next two are Westcott.)
2. Before you even start cutting you have to show and know how to hold the scissors. The thumb always goes in the smaller opening and your first 2 fingers go in the larger opening. The Thumb always goes up. Make sure while they are cutting that the thumb is staying up. Have your kids open an close the scissors for a bit of practice with out paper that way they can get used to the motion. If you have scissors that just have two openings of the same size use your thumb and middle finger. If you have a left-handed child you should get them a pair of left handed scissors. (Don’t forget to demonstrate your own cutting skills.)
3. A great way to start practicing cutting is snipping. Snipping gets them used to making that open and closed hand motion with one quick cut. Thin pre cut strips of paper are good for snipping (you can even draw lines on the strips for them to cut on). Straws, playdough snakes and strips of card stock, are great too.
4. After your kiddos have mastered this they can move on to cutting a longer strip of paper. This will get them used to making the cutting motion with their hand over and over with out closing the scissors all the way and also start to use their other hand a little more to guide the page along as they cut. Paint strips can be used for this or a 1/4 and then later a 1/2 of construction paper with straight lines drawn on for them to follow.
5. Cutting fringe is also a great idea. It helps the kids learn how to stop cutting on a certain spot instead of cutting on through. You can practice making grass or hair.
6. Now that they have mastered cutting in a straight line lets add in some zig zags and then curves. This will help them really start to move the paper around as they cut. Don’t worry about cutting on the lines as much as the skill of moving the paper while they are cutting. While cutting you need to keep your noncutting arm loose so you can move your paper. Discourage those that are holding the paper still but using their whole cutting arm to cut out the object or line.
7. Next is cutting out shapes: Easy shapes to cut are squares, rectangles, triangles, circles. Harder shapes are stars and hearts. Since almost every art project or item they will be cutting from a work sheet has shapes they will need to know how to cut them.
I have a freebie cutting practice sheet on my teacher pay teacher site. Click the banner to the right to see my store and get the freebie.
Good luck!
(Side note: Working on making my blog a little cuter so bear with me.)
