Fun Cutting Activities For Kids

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scissor cutting activities for kids

It is so easy to create fun cutting activities for your kids! This page contains a free cutting template download with simple shapes to cut out, and lots of photographed ideas to help your child master scissor skills.

They are designed for children who have mastered the basic cutting motion but still need lots of practice cutting on lines and cutting out shapes.

Make sure your child is cutting with an appropriate scissor grasp, and preferably on paper that is about double regular thickness.

Use my free cutting template at the end of this page to print out the lines and shapes you need!


Straight Line Cutting Activities

Be creative and give your child lots and lots of practice cutting on thick straight lines.

You can use the straight lines on the free template to carry out these activities.

Staple or tape the lines together to make a good old-fashioned paper chain, or a paper flower.

Or try a paper lantern or simple paper decorations.

The templates for these two activities can be find in my Christmas Scissor Cutting E-Book.

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Cutting Circles And Spirals

Use the circles and lines in your free template to make the spider and the caterpillar.

Spider Cutting Activity

Add a circle to 8 lines.

Stick or staple them together to make a spider.

Add some string to the middle to make a dangly spider.

Caterpillar Cutting Activity

Cut 5 or 6 circles and stick them together to make a caterpillar.

Stick the "head" circle a little higher than the rest and give it a smiley face. Add pipe cleaner feelers.

Add little pipe cleaner legs to the first segment ( I folded 3 short sections in half and pushed them through three little holes).

Spiral Snakes

Spiral snakes are so much fun!

You can draw a spiral on a paper plate, or use a free download from here (opens in new window).

Please note: for a left handed child, the spiral needs to go the other way!

How to make a "leftie" snake: Stick the "right hand" snake to a window (so you can see the outline through the paper) and trace the outline on the back of the paper to get a snake with the spiral going the other way.

When you give it to your left handed child, make sure he/she cuts out the spiral on the BACK of the paper.

OR - much easier - get my Cutting Printables E-Book, and use the Spiral Snakes in there - I provide both left and right spiral snakes, as well as thicker and thinner line options.

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Cutting Simple Shapes

Use the free cutting template to cut out triangles and squares.

Then try these creations!

Build a house!
Create a Rocket!
Make a Fir Tree!

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More Advanced Cutting

Once your child has mastered going around the external corners of squares and triangles, then he/she will need to practice manipulating the scissors around internal corners (such as hearts and stars).

Cutting out smaller pieces and/or on a thinner line is also challenging, as it requires more careful control of the scissors.

Ask your child to cut out groceries from a supermarket flyer to make a shopping list!

Look for activities with thinner lines, on normal-thickness paper, and with "interesting" angles and corners.

There are some lovely, more advanced scissor cutting activities on this page.

You can also try these simple kirigami ideas with older kids! (opens to a different site in a new window)

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Free Cutting Template

My free PDF download contains printable templates to give your child practice in cutting along the line and cutting shapes. There are thick straight lines, circles, squares, triangles and also a house cutting activity.

These free cutting worksheets will enable your child to create the activities suggested on this page!

Check the boxes below to unlock access to your freebie - no need to give away your email address or sign up for anything!

Please note that all fields followed by an asterisk must be filled in.
 
 



For more scissor cutting practice, check out these additional cutting templates on my site.

These activities are more advanced and contain a greater range of cutting activities than the free download above.

These printable e-book downloads will make it easy for you to access cutting activities whenever you need them!

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My Full Set of Cutting Printables
More Advanced Scissor Practice

My Child Can't Cut With Scissors Yet

If your child hasn't developed a good grasp-release motion on the scissors yet, or if you have no idea where to start teaching your child to cut with scissors, then these pages on my site may help...

Part 1: Learning To Use Scissors
Part 2: Learning To Cut Along The Line
How To Hold Scissors Correctly
FAQ: Scissor Skills


Help Your Child Master Scissor Cutting

Is your child struggling to cut neatly with scissors? 

Do you want to teach your preschooler how to cut with scissors but don't know where to start?

My 33 page scissor skills e-book will help answer your questions, and will give you step by step photographed activities to help your child master scissor skills.

View my Scissor Skills E-Book now!

printable resource to help your child with scissor skills

Thank you for visiting my site! I hope you found these cutting activities useful for your child!

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Do You Want Easily Accessible Activities and Information?
Try My OT Mom E-Books!

Bilateral E-Book
Core E-Book
Shoulder E-Book
Fine Motor E-Book
Cutting E-Book

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