Are your preschoolers ready to start learning scissor skills? Do they have the fine motor control necessary to start exploring activities that require cutting? This Make A Sun Scissor Skills Activity is the perfect starter project for kids that are just learning how to use scissors!
Preschoolers need lots of practice using scissors before they become proficient enough to cut straight lines (or around complicated shapes). One of the first scissor skills kids can practice is fringe cutting. Fringe cutting does not require a continual cutting motion (opening and closing the scissor blades in a continual, forward motion), so it is a great skill to start out with.
Supplies Needed to Make a Sun Scissor Skills Activity
- Preschool Scissors
- Yellow Paper (we used craft foam instead of paper)
- Plates, bowls, and or other circular objects
- Pen
Preparing the Suns for Cutting:
I started by tracing plates onto our yellow craft foam to create the outer edges of the sun and cut it out.
Next, I traced a smaller circle in the center of the large circle to create the center of the sun. I made a few suns in different sizes so my kids could practice different depths of fringe cuts.
Making the Suns:
I invited my kids over to make shallow fringe cuts (a.k.a. rays of sunshine) that began at the outer edges of the son and stopped at the inner circle.
There are so many great things going on here: beginner scissor skills, fine motor skills, impulse control (stopping at the line can be a challenge for some kids!), etc. My boys were both super concentrated on making as many rays of sunshine as possible on their suns!
Note: The larger suns required deeper fringe cuts. If the scissors aren’t sharp enough, kids may need to open and close the blades and move them forward to get all the way to the center of the sun. If you don’t want to introduce the continual cutting motion just yet, make the suns have shallow rays to cut out (see photo below).
These shallow cuts are much easier to make, and it isolates the skill at hand: fringe cutting.
The finished suns can be strung up and displayed on a bulletin board or in a window!
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