Christmas Tree Scissor Skills Craft

If you need a preschool scissor skills activity, then this Christmas cutting craft is for you. Based on the beginning scissor skills of cutting through a page, the Christmas tree cutting activity helps young learners to hold scissors perpendicularly on the page while cutting through the paper (and not tearing the paper!) It’s a fun way to work on skills this time of year!

Christmas Tree Cutting Activity

 
This time of year, working on Occupational Therapy goals like scissor skills can be difficult for kids who are more excited than Santa’s elves. Sometimes, you have areas you need to work on even though the kids are more excited about all of the exciting sights that the Christmas season brings.  
 
That’s where this Christmas Tree Scissors activity comes into play!
 
Christmas Tree Scissor Skills craft can help kids work on cutting on lines and scissor control with a fun, holiday craft that will bring smiles from your little elves!
 
Check out these Christmas Fine Motor Activities for more creative ways to work on fine motor skills and address development of skills this Christmas season. 
 


Christmas Tree Scissor skills craft for kids this holiday season, perfect for preschool parties or play dates while working on Occupational Therapy goals like cutting on lines.
 
 


Christmas Tree Scissor Skills Craft for kids

This post contains affiliate links. 
 
You might have seen this scissor skill craft on our OT Christmas calendar where we shared a month of Christmas-y Occupational Therapy activities.  In it, we shared occupational therapy activities that can be done this time of year to develop skills and help kids thrive. 
 
The idea actually was one we shared a few years ago with our icicle scissor skills craft. The basic premise is helping young scissor users to cut through the page to create a craft or an actual result.
 
When learners are first starting out with scissor use, they tend to push through the paper, resulting in torn paper and frustrated kids. This craft is a simple way to work on cutting through the page with engaged scissors, maintaining vertical positioning of the blades of the scissors in a perpendicular position compared to the paper. 
 
You can learn more about the progression of scissor skills and how to grade activities to support learners as they move to the next level of scissor use in our crash course on scissor skills. We used gift wrap to work on scissor skill progression, so it’s a great activity for the holiday season! 
 
An easy printable template of our icicle craft is available as well.
 
The same concept of cutting through the page (without tearing the paper) can be carried over and used in this Christmas cutting craft.
 
 
 
Christmas Tree Scissor skills craft for kids this holiday season, perfect for preschool parties or play dates while working on Occupational Therapy goals like cutting on lines.
 

How to make paper Christmas Trees

 
You’ll need just a couple of items to create these paper Christmas trees and work on scissor skills:
  • Green Paper
  • Brown Paper
  • Scissors
  • A Marker
 
To practice scissor skills with a festive, Christmas tree spin, use Green Cardstockto cut triangles.  
 
Cutting card stock provides a greater resistance than regular printer paper and is a great way for beginner scissor users to learn to cut on lines accurately, with precision.   
 
1. Draw long lines from one edge of the paper to the other so children can cut along one line without turning the page.  This craft can be modified for older children by drawing triangles on the page to allow the child to turn the page to cut around a sharp angle. 


2. Draw short lines on a strip of Brown Cardstock to practice snipping in one solid cut.  Holding a strip of paper with short cuts is perfect for beginner scissor users.

3. Next, have the child to glue the trunks onto the green triangles.



Christmas Tree Scissor skills craft for kids this holiday season, perfect for preschool parties or play dates while working on Occupational Therapy goals like cutting on lines.

 
Christmas Tree Scissor skills craft for kids this holiday season, perfect for preschool parties or play dates while working on Occupational Therapy goals like cutting on lines.
 
Love this idea? Share it on Facebook! 
 

Christmas Handwriting Activities

Writing out that Christmas wish list is a difficult task that brings out tears instead of holiday excitement.  I’ve got a solution for your kiddo with handwriting difficulties: a packet of modified paper for all of the Christmas handwriting tasks that come up each year.  Use this handwriting pack to help kids who struggle with handwriting to participate in holiday traditions while even working on and developing their handwriting skills!

Working on handwriting with kids this Christmas season? Grab your copy of the Christmas Modified Handwriting Packet. It’s got three types of adapted paper that kids can use to write letters to Santa, Thank You notes, holiday bucket lists and much more…all while working on handwriting skills in a motivating and fun way! Read more about the adapted Christmas Paper here

How to Use these Christmas Trees To Work on Scissor Skills

So, after you’ve shown a learner how to cut simple Christmas trees using the cut-through method that we’ve covered above, how can you use this activity to build on motivation as a meaningful task?

Having “buy-in” or a reason for completing an activity is part of the way to develop skills through meaningful and motivating activities. When we show the learner that we can use the Christmas trees that they’ve cut to create a card or craft that can be given to a loved one, we immediately get that buy-in so they want to put forth their best effort.

  1. Use the paper Christmas trees to create a homemade Christmas card that builds fine motor skills.

2. You can also use these Christmas Trees in a math activity. This activity strengthens the hands as well by using a hole punch to count. It’s a great activity to build on the scissor skills task.

3. Use the paper Christmas trees in decorations by clipping them with clothes pins or paper clips to string them across the room in a Christmas garland.  

Then, to further develop the hand strength needed to hold and cut across a page with scissors, work on the fine motor strength to strengthen hands that cut with scissors, try making this clothes pin Christmas tree.

There are many ways to develop fine motor skills through play and this scissor skills Christmas tree is just one of those activities for this time of year. Grab more creative activities in our post on Christmas fine motor activities.

Looking for done-for you therapy activities this holiday season?

This print-and-go Christmas Therapy Kit includes no-prep, fine motor, gross motor, self-regulation, visual perceptual activities…and much more… to help kids develop functional grasp, dexterity, strength, and endurance. Use fun, Christmas-themed, motor activities so you can help children develop the skills they need.

This 100 page no-prep packet includes everything you need to guide fine motor skills in face-to-face AND virtual learning. You’ll find Christmas-themed activities for hand strength, pinch and grip, dexterity, eye-hand coordination, bilateral coordination, endurance, finger isolation, and more. 

Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

New Feature...DOWNLOAD THIS POST AS A PDF! CLICK HERE
Paper Christmas trees for scissor skills

More Posts Like This