Teach Scissor Skills by Playing with Slime

If your house is like mine, slime, making slime, and playing with slime is a daily activity and conversation piece.  Slime is all the rage right now in the school-aged kids.  So, you might be like me and wonder what to do with those six batches of slime that are sitting around the house.  Why not use slime to work on scissor skills?  It’s a nice texture for practicing scissor use and teaching kids how to snip with scissors.  We shared fun ways to use slime for fine motor skills and adding scissors to the mix is one more way to use that slime!

Teach scissor skills by playing with slime


Teach Scissor Skills by Playing with Slime



Affiliate links are included in this post.


First, you’ll need a batch of slime.  Here are directions to make slime.  Be sure to use caution with ingredients and research the best options for your family.  Some recipes can cause inflammation to the hands.


Next, pull out your scissors.  When teaching kids to use scissors, you’ll want a great pair that helps with scissor control and positioning.  These are my favorite type of scissors as a therapist.


To work on scissor skills, you’ll need to have an understanding of how scissor skills develop.  The new book by the Functional Skills for Kids therapy team is an excellent resource for promoting healthy development of scissor skills.  

Grab your copy of The Scissor Skills Book today.


Use the slime to promote graded opening and closing of the scissor blades in order to cut across strips of slime.  There are several other ways to address scissor skill development with slime:

  • Bilateral coordination to hold the slime with one hand while cutting it with another. 
  • Cut snips into a lump of slime.
  • Roll a band of slime and cut one snip across.
  • Pull the slime into a thin sheet.  Cut across the slime with forward motions.
  • Create a wide band of slime.  Cut lengthwise down the slime, promoting bilateral coordination and forward cutting motions.

Related read: Use this scented scissor skills activity to help kids learn graded scissor use in a fun way! 

Use slime to teach kids scissor skills

Another fun way to use slime to address scissor skills is to place the scissors right in the slime.  use both hands to pull the slime from the loops.


How would you use slime to work on scissor skills?


For more fine motor fun using slime, try this Slime writing tray.

Help kids work on scissor skills by playing with slime

The Scissor Skills Book 

Affiliate links are included in this post. 

Ten Occupational Therapists and Physical Therapists have gotten together to write The Scissor Skills Book.  It’s a book with resources for every underlying area needed for scissor use.  It’s got tons of motor activities to address the areas needed for scissor skills.  There are pages and pages of accommodations and creative ways to work on scissor use.  This e-book is a giant resource for anyone who works with kids on cutting with scissors!

The therapists behind the Functional Skills for Kids series include a team of 10 pediatric physical and occupational therapists with years of experience in the field.  Together, we have created the ultimate resource for tips, strategies, suggestions, and information to support scissor skill development in children.  Read more about The Scissor Skills Book here


The Scissor Skills Book is a resource for working on using scissors with kids

The Scissor Skills Book

Most parents have wondered at one point of another if they should allow their child to cut with a pair of scissors.  But what if they decide to cut their hair off?  Or what if they snip a hole in their best jeans?  It can be a real struggle to allow your child to hold and use a pair of scissors!

Scissor skills are not easy skills to master!  Many children start out holding and using scissors with an awkward grasp.  They might switch hands when they hold the scissors or they might nip their crafts into a billion pieces because they can’t control or grad the force needed to snip and cut.

That’s why I’m excited to bring you The Scissor Skills Book!


(Affiliate links are included in this post.)

The Scissor Skills Book helps kids develop the skills they need to cut with scissors.

Challenges with Scissor Skills

You might have seen kids struggle with scissors before:
The child who struggles with holding scissors again and again.
The child who holds the scissors up in the air to attempt to gain control.
The child who snips their cutting worksheets into a million pieces.
This child who tears the paper as they cut and seems to plow the scissors through the paper.
The child who can not grade their cuts and over cuts lines or has jagged cutting lines.
The child who snips corners from shapes.

There are many different ways that kids struggle with scissor use and accuracy when cutting with scissors.  Kids with underlying developmental difficulties need to go through the process of learning to use scissors and can experience struggles during that development, too.

Children who have developmental or neurological difficulties that impact scissor use will experience difficulty coordinating fine motor skills, gross motor skills, visual perceptual skills, visual motor skills, sensory processing skills, attention and behavior, and cognitive functions while cutting with scissors.

All of these areas are addressed in the new book by the Functional Skills for Kids therapy team.

Activities to support scissor skills in kids and scissor skill development.


The Scissor Skills Book 



Ten Occupational Therapists and Physical Therapists have gotten together to write The Scissor Skills Book.  It’s a book with resources for every underlying area needed for scissor use.  It’s got tons of motor activities to address the areas needed for scissor skills.  There are pages and pages of accommodations and creative ways to work on scissor use.  This e-book is a giant resource for anyone who works with kids on cutting with scissors!

The therapists behind the Functional Skills for Kids series include a team of 10 pediatric physical and occupational therapists with years of experience in the field.  Together, we have created the ultimate resource for tips, strategies, suggestions, and information to support scissor skill development in children.  Read more about The Scissor Skills Book here


The Scissor Skills Book is a resource for working on using scissors with kids
The launch week discount lasts from May 1- May 8. Get The Scissor Skills Book on sale now!

The Scissor Skills Book is an 81 page PDF document that is delivered electronically.  The book includes the following chapters:
Chapter 1: Developmental Progression of Scissor Skills
Chapter 2: Teaching Your Child to Use Scissors
Chapter 3: Gross Motor and Scissor Skills
Chapter 4: Fine Motor and Scissor Skills
Chapter 5: Visual Perceptual and Scissor Skills
Chapter 6: Sensory Processing and Scissor Skills
Chapter 7: Attention Challenges and Scissor Skills
Chapter 8: Helping Kids who Struggle with Scissor Skills
Chapter 9: Creative Ways to Practice Scissor Skills with Kids
Resources for Typical and Adaptive Scissors, Cutting Materials, and Further Information
References
Click on the Buy Now button to purchase The Scissor Skills Book for $11.99 for one week only!  
Click Here to Buy the Scissor Skills Book The Scissor Skills Book