Preschool Scissor Skills Activities and Worksheets

Use scissor skills worksheets, activities, and crafts of different complexities to help your children develop and strengthen the very same muscles which are needed to hold and control a pencil.

Scissor Skills Stategies:
Select good scissors that fit your child's hand. For young children select scissors with a blunt point. Ensure that the blades are sharp enough for cutting.

Scissor skills strategies for preschool children

Preschool Activities:

Media Root

Model scissor skills by sitting beside your children. Demonstrate how to open and close the scissors and describe what you are doing. Say, "Look, I am using my thumb and my other fingers to open and close the scissors just like a cocodile that is opening its mouth. Can you try it?" Once your children can hold and open and close a pair of scissors with ease, they are ready to cut on her own. Provide different materials for the children to cut: straws, pieces of paper, play dough, yarn, etc.

Preschool Fine Motor Skills and Scissor Skills

Preschool scissor skills and fine motor activities

Preschool Activities:

Media Root

Preschool fine motor skills is the ability to use our hands, wrists, and fingers to reach, grasp, and manipulate small objects and tools. The more your preschool children use their fingers in activities that help to strengthen their hand coordination, the sooner they will acquire the fine motor skills needed for handwriting.

Preschool scissor skills help to develop and strengthen the fine motor muscles that are needed to manipulate a pencil.

It is important to remember that preschool children will develop fine motor skills and scissor skills at different rates. Choose the skill stage that matches your child’s development and be patient but at the same time, make sure to reinforce the proper hand/scissors position. Tip: Teaching the skills with your hand over your child’s cutting hand can help and speed up the learning process.

Lily's and Twiggi's Scissor Skills Practice Workbook (download now for only $2.99)

Lily and Twiggi's Scissor Skills Practice Workbook for Preschool

Preschool Activities:

Media Root

This e-book has 27 motivating and fun, reproducible worksheets and craft ideas for children ages 4–6. Let Lily and Twiggi take your children on some fun adventures while practicing their scissor and fine motor skills.

In our Preschool Scissors Skill Workbook you will find activities and crafts that are arranged sequentially from the simplest stage to the most complex stage.

Scissor Skills Stages:

1. Picking up and holding the scissors (instructions and tips)

2. Opening and closing the scissors (instructions and tips)

3. Snipping activities and craft ideas

4. Free cutting practice activities and craft ideas

5. Guided scissor skills worksheets, crafts, and activities

Scissor Skill: Straight line

At this stage, children learn to manipulate the direction of the scissors to stay on a line and stabilize the paper.