Basic Cutting Activities

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scissor cutting activities for kids

These easy cutting activities are designed to give your child lots of practice in mastering scissor cutting.

They are designed for children who have already learned to use scissors but need lots of practice to cut on lines and to cut 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.

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.

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Cutting Circles And Spirals

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.

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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. I link to some in my "related pages" section below.

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 the printable cutting templates for thick straight lines, circles, squares, triangles and a house cutting activity.

This template will enable your child to create the activities suggested on this page!

You are welcome to tell others about it, but please link to this cutting activities page and not directly to the template itself.

free basic scissor cutting templates for kids

You can download my free cutting template by clicking here. (1MB)
Your download will start immediately - you don't need to sign up for anything! :-)

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

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

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OT Mom's Cutting Templates
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 should help...

Help your child learn to cut
Helpful tips and FAQ

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Related Pages On My Site

Fine Motor Ideas
Downloadable Cutting Activity Packs
Christmas Scissor Activities
Scissor Skills E-Book

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

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