Fine Motor Skills, Functional Skills, Visual Motor Skills

Creative & Fun Ways to Help Kids Cut With Scissors

Colleen Beck OTR/L

Colleen Beck, OTR/L is a pediatric occupational therapist and the owner and author of The OT Toolbox website. She manages all of The OT Toolbox social media accounts and runs the popular newsletter. Colleen created The OT Toolbox in 2011 and since then has written thousands of blog posts designed to support therapy providers, educators, parents, counselors, admin, and caregivers in promoting the healthy development of kids. Check out Colleen's blog posts below:

by Colleen Beck OTR/L
October 25, 2015

Teaching and modifying for scissor skills is absolutely one of my favorite treatment areas in working with pediatrics. Today, I’m excited to share creative tips on helping kids with scissor skills. These ideas work with any type of scissors. From snipping paper to cutting complex shapes, there is a lot to cover!

These ideas are some of my favorite tips and tools and you’ve got them all in one place. It’s part of my 31 Days of Occupational Therapy series, where you can find treatment ideas using free and almost free materials that you probably already have in your home. These cutting ideas use items you probably already have in your house.

Creative Scissor Skills ideas and tips for helping kids work on cutting with scissors, from an Occupational Therapist

Creative Ways to Help Kids Cut With Scissors

Take a quick look around Pinterest and you will see a gazillion ways to practice scissor skills with kids.

But, you can hand a kiddo a pair of scissors and have them snip away and they still might need a little extra help with cutting on the lines. Did you know there are a bunch of skills that a child needs to master in order to cut a multi-angled shape like a house from paper?

In order to hold scissors and cut on lines, a child needs to use a precision grasp on the scissors, separate the two sides of the hand, position the scissors with a perpendicular position to the paper, flex the thumb with graded dexterity, perceive force as they cut, utilize bilateral integration, demonstrate motor planning, utilize eye-hand coordination, and show integration of visual motor skills. Whew! I’m tired just thinking about all of that work a kiddo is doing when they cut out a shape!

Scissor Grasp and Accuracy in Cutting Paper

Before a child can cut a shape from paper, they must use an appropriate grasp on the scissors. Provide visual and verbal cues for holding the scissors correctly and notice a few things:

Does the child can open and close the scissor?
Do they position the scissors consistently on their dominant hand?
Does the child open and close the entire hand when cutting, or just the thumb side of the hand.
Do they have the scissors positioned on their hand correctly?
Are they holding the scissors in a perpendicular position to the paper?
Are the middle, ring, and pinkie fingers bent into the palm?

If any of these areas are a concern, you’ll need to work on scissor grasp. Stay tuned, because we’ve got scissor grasp ideas in the line up and coming soon to the blog!

Now, if your little scissor user has a good grasp on the scissors, is interested in cutting with scissors, and is ready for some practice, try these creative ideas for working on scissor control, accuracy, and avoiding cutting their therapist or parent helper:

Fun Scissor Skills Ideas For Kids

Try cutting these materials for creative scissor practice:

NOTE: These creative scissor ideas are not in order of difficulty. That is another blog post 😉 This list is meant to be a resource of creative cutting practice ideas. Click on the links to see how we used each material in a fun way in the past!

Practice Scissor Skills by Cutting Paper Materials:

Newspaper

Recycled cereal boxes

Strips of tissue paper

Toilet paper

Construction Paper

Cardstock

Oaktag

Index Cards

Food Wrappers like Labels

Coupons

Junk Mail

Paper Plates

Practice Scissor Skills by Cutting Household Items:

Flower Stems

Cloth

Aluminum Foil

Cheesecloth

Chip Bags

Sandpaper

Fabric

Wax Paper

Plastic Wrap

Paper Bags

Plastic Bags

Sandwich Baggies

Cotton Swabs

Toilet Paper

Cardboard Tubes

Napkins

Baby Wipes

Crepe Paper Streamers

Herbs

Grass

Leaves

Thin Twigs

Soap Shavings

Rubber Bands

Cotton Balls

Plastic Beads

Play Dough

Coffee Filters

Paint Chips

Cupcake Liners (like this and this)

Sponges

Hair Curlers

Practice Scissor Skills with Crafting Materials:

Foam Crafting Paper like this.

Ribbon

Yarn

Thin string

Scrapbook Paper

Pipe cleaners

Cotton Batting

Tape

Plastic Canvas Sheets

Thin Balsa Wood

Felt

Wikki Stix

Practice Scissor Skills with Food Materials: Use the cutting practice during food preparation in Cooking With Kids experiences!

Sliced Bread

Twizzler candies. See how we did it over on Instagram.

Sliced Cheese

Deli Meat

Gummy Worms

Thinly Sliced vegetables like cucumbers, zucchini, carrots

Marshmallows

Pasta

Toast

Lettuce

Dough

Green Beans

So the ideas in this post are purely for practicing MORE scissor activities while working on and encouraging your child’s appropriate scissor grasp. Line Accuracy, smooth cutting strokes, and difficult cutting shapes are other areas (Again, coming soon to a blog near you…this one!) All of these ideas will make cutting with scissors easier for your child in a fun and creative way. And prevent snips to your fingers as you help your favorite scissor user!