Teacher’s Brain

Tag: scissor skills

Simple Tips for Teaching Scissor Skills

Teaching Tips

Have you ever stopped to think about just how important scissor skills are for our early elementary students? While it may seem like such a tiny part of their education, the ability to cut with scissors is actually a critical life skill that can have a significant impact on their overall development! 

What skills do scissors develop? 

Not only does it help our little ones develop fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination, but it can also: 

  • Boost their creativity
  • Increase bilateral coordination
  • Boost self-esteem
  • Increase academic performance
scissor skills

If you’re wondering how exactly to teach this crucial fine motor skill to your elementary students, I have you covered. Get ready to snip, snip, snip your way to success!

  1. Choose the right scissors: It’s important to choose the right type of scissors for your students based on their age and skill level. With our younger elementary-level students, it’s best to aim for scissors with blunt tips and smaller handles. 
  2. Demonstrate proper technique: Before your students start cutting, make sure to demonstrate the proper technique by holding the scissors correctly, showing them where to put their thumb and finger, and using a smooth, controlled motion. Spend some time on this topic and encourage students to ask questions if they’re unsure about what to do. Don’t forget to clearly demonstrate how to hold scissors while walking! This is an important safety step you don’t want to forget. Also, make sure to explain that we don’t cut anything that isn’t paper. 
  3. Practice, practice, practice: Like any skill, learning to use scissors takes practice. Provide plenty of opportunities for your students to practice cutting different shapes and lines, and be sure to offer positive feedback and encouragement along the way! 
  4. Start with simple shapes: To help build confidence and avoid frustration, start with simple shapes like straight lines or basic curves. As your students become more comfortable, you can gradually increase the difficulty level by introducing more complex shapes and designs.
  5. Incorporate scissors skills into other activities: You can help your students build their cutting skills by incorporating them into other activities like crafts, art projects, and even math activities.
  6. Move into more advanced cutting strategies. You can allow them to cut out more complex shapes or teach them new techniques for cutting like folding a paper in half to cut a hole in the center. 

If you’re looking for a simple and fun scissors activity for kids that will help your students practice and perfect this important fine motor skill, I have you covered! 

This Fine Motor Cutting Practice with Scissors resource is just what you need! 

scissor skills

This download starts out with simple straight lines and moves into more advanced cutting skills. It is a perfect way to get students to increase their hand and eye coordination using scissors.

What’s in this download?

22 pages of cutting skills that include straight lines, zigzags, shapes, spirals, and interior cutting. Each page gradually gets more difficult.

Some can be colored and added to construction paper as artwork, but the main purpose of these printables is to practice cutting skills! 

Check it out here! 

Have any tips for teaching about using scissors? Let me know in the comments! 

For more fun classroom ideas, check out this post to learn how you can create a positive affirmation station! 

Beginner to Advanced Scissor Skills TIPS

Teaching Tips

After teaching in primary classrooms for twenty years, you learn a few tips and tricks to help students with their scissor skills! Children need a lot of exposure to scissor practice to become successful and confident learners in future grade levels where they use more difficult cutting skills.

WHY ARE SCISSOR SKILLS IMPORTANT?

Cutting with scissors not only builds fine motor skills, but also helps to develop hand-eye coordination in young students.  When students feel confident with their coordination, they tend to complete tasks quickly and correctly when fine motor skills are needed in other activities.

TIPS

If the child has never used scissors before, you will want to do a few activities with them before they get a pair of scissors. First, let students put some fine motor skills to the test by tearing paper into small pieces. Let that prior knowledge lead them to the reason why we use scissors.  If they want to cut a line with precision, scissors are the tool to help them do it.

RULES

Next, cover the rules. The main rule with scissors is to teach students that they only cut paper when they first learn how to cut things.  If you don’t remind them repeatedly, they tend to try cutting things like hair or shoelaces while exploring.  Another rule that proves useful is how to hold the scissors if you are walking with them. Tell them they should never run with scissors because it is dangerous. Students should hold them by wrapping their hand around the tip.  Finally, show students how to hold scissors correctly.

TEACHING KIDS HOW TO HOLD SCISSORS THE RIGHT WAY

If the child is using regular safety scissors, a good tip to help your child remember how to position their hand is to draw a smiley face on the thumbnail of their cutting hand. Remind your child that they should always be able to see the smiley face while they’re cutting paper.  This will prevents the child from turning their hand upside down while cutting.

holding scissors

Give students lots of practice by letting them begin with cutting straight, curvy or zigzag lines.  Once they find those skills easy, it’s time to learn how to cut shapes out of the middle of images or other shapes.

HOW TO CUT THE MIDDLE

If the item is soft and flexible like paper, fold it in half so you can see half of the image you are cutting out on either side.  Using sharp safety scissors, cut a small slit in the center. Be careful not to cut past the marked edge of the part you are cutting out.  Then, stick the tip of the scissors in the slit and proceed to cut around the marked edge of the part you are cutting out.

Another option is to use a hole punch in the center of the part you want to cut out.  Then, use that hole as a starting point with scissors.