Practice Cutting

To go along with our other shape activity, I threw together this quick cutting practice sheet. After we said the name of each shape, I turned Erik loose with the scissors and let him go at it. This was not our first time using scissors, but he still has a long way to go before he's actually able to cut on the lines. Right now we are focusing on cutting technique and we'll worry about cutting on the lines sometime later. 

When cutting, the child should hold the scissors in his dominant hand with the thumb on top and the scissors pointing away from his body at all times. Theoretically the scissors should always point directly away from his body. His other hand is the "helper" hand, which is in charge of supporting the paper and turning it so that he can cut where he wants.

I think it's something of a boy thing, but Erik loves getting to chop things up into little pieces. I love that he can enjoy destroying something while also building fine motor strength and learning valuable skills.