Working on building those scissor skills?
Scissor skills are important because they build the TINY MUSCLES in the palm of your little one’s hand.
OPEN-CLOSE-OPEN-CLOSE! That continuous movement builds their muscle and that muscle is not only used for cutting BUT FOR GRIPPING, WRITING, AND PAINTING too.
So knowing that cutting also builds hand-eye coordination I decided to set up a cut and thread station for my girls!
This one is SIMPLE! You need just a few things to invite your child to CUT the straws then THREAD them on pipe cleaners for some FINE MOTOR FUN!
MATERIALS
(this list contains affiliate links)
-Foam Block
CUTTING TAKES PRACTICE! Yes, building scissor skills is practice and your little one will need lots of opportunities to practice. When starting out STRAWS are a great alternative to use instead of paper because they are STURDY!
Step 1: Give your child the straws and scissors and invite them to CUT the straws into tiny pieces.
Maybe it was because they got to cut straws or because of the bright colors but my girls thought this was the BEST THING EVER!
Set out a tray to contain the “flying straws” and watch your littles practice those scissor skills over and over!
Step 2: Now we have a bunch of STRAW BEADS! Yay!
Time to THREAD! We all know threading is SO IMPORTANT for building hand-eye coordination, concentration, and of course fine motor skills.
Add pipe cleaners to a foam block and set them out next to the cut staws. Invite your child to thread the straw beads onto the pipe cleaners.
Add in another element: Thread and sort by COLOR! Thread and make PATTERNS! Add NUMBERS to each pipe cleaner and thread and COUNT!
SIMPLE. FUN. BUILDING ALL THOSE TINY MUSCLES!
And when you’re all done save those cut up straws! They work great for art projects, making bracelets, toss them in a sensory bag – use them again and again!
So what do you think? Is this a FINE MOTOR activity you’ll try?
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