If your child is working on scissor skills, this cutting tray activity is easy to set up and perfect for working on cutting practice.
You only need a few basic supplies that your probably already have at home and you’re preschooler will be happily snipping and cutting and practicing fine motor skills, eye-hand co-ordination and more!
Being told you can’t go with Daddy is tough at 9am on a Friday morning.
It’s tough on the three year old who cries and cries, and tough on the Mum who is left to try and make things better.
Making it better was going to require some really awesome distraction on my part and I had to do it fast! Thankfully my brain was switched on this morning and I remembered my boy’s current interest in scissors…
Check out this huge list of 20 fun ways for kids to practice scissor skills
How to Set up a Cutting Tray
You only need a few basic items to set up this simple cutting tray activity.
Supplies for Setting up a Cutting Tray
- A tray or tub to contain the mess
We used a plastic serving tray, but you could also use a plastic tub, or even a cardboard box with the sides cut down. - A container or basket to put the cut paper into.
Having a specific container for the cut pieces helps to container the mess a little and collects the cut paper to be used for other projects. - Scissors
Make sure to choose scissors that are the right size for your child, that are for their dominant hand, and that will actually cut paper. - Paper!
You can use whatever paper you have on hand. We used some strips of paper left over from our strip collage activity, and some junk mail cut into smaller pieces. - Bonus Idea – paper with lines to cut alone.
I quickly and easily drew some very simple lines onto squares of paper so my child could practice cutting along the lines.
How to Use a Cutting Tray with your Preschooler.
Learning to use scissors can be quite tricky, so you need to make sure your child is ready to work on this skill, and set them up for success so they don’t get frustrated.
Start by making sure the pieces of paper you offer for cutting are not too big. Large floppy sheets of paper are much harder to hold and cut, so start by offering smallish pieces of paper that are easier to hold and make it easier to co-ordinate the paper and the scissors.
- Thin strips are easy for small, fast snips, without any frustration and perfect for beginners.
- Postcard sized pieces of paper are easier to hold and manipulate while cutting.
- Small squares with very basic lines drawn on them give him a challenge to cut following the line if he would like to, but are still small enough to be easily manipulated while he cuts.
- Junk mail or magazine pages give him some fun images to cut out if he chooses, and cutting them into small pieces to begin with helps him to manipulate what is often more flimsy paper.
Remind your child how to safely use scissors, and help them hold the scissors correctly. You may need to remind them to keep their ‘thumb on top’, and help them hold the paper with one hand and cut with the other until they get the hang of things.
HINT: Show them were the cut scraps of paper go, and if you tell them you are collecting the cut pieces for another project that’ll be more likely to try and get them in the container.
My three year old is just beginning to get a handle on cutting. He’s been keen to use scissors for a long time, and has been slowly learning to cut, but only recently has he become more successful and less frustrated. His technique is still a little wild, and every now and then I remind him to keep his ‘thumb on the top’, but he has mastered holding the paper while he cuts and has some control over his snips so all that is left now is to practice, practice, practice!
Giving our kids opportunities like this where they can just cut whatever they likes in whatever way they want without any other agenda will help them refine their fine motor skills and increase their confidence, and it is also a perfect distraction activity!
More Cutting Activities for Beginners.
If you have a beginning scissor user and are looing for some more simple ideas to give them practice cutting, try one of these ideas:
Grab some contact paper and set up this sticky cutting tray activity.
Collect some greenery from the garden for this super fun cutting leaves and flowers activity.
Looks like he’s doing a fantastic job!
Just looking at this makes my blood pressure rise…. :(
My daughter has just turned 4. We’ve tried using scissors a few times, but she can’t hold them properly and gets irritated with me when I try and help her. :(
If she can’t do something, she just gives up instantly. I’m definitely the opposite of that and have never instilled that in her, so I think that’s just her temperament.
I will try some of your cutting suggestions.
It’s so hard having a perfectionist daughter at such a young age!
She starts kindy next year – good luck to her teachers!
AH my older boy was just like that at that age! At first I tried to help – I put googly eyes on the top of the scissors, even bought scissors that spring open on their own… but he just got more and more frustrated so I just let it go. He learned to cut just fine, eventually, on his own terms! LOL
my daughter took to cutting quite well, my 4 year old son however loves cutting but when he does it it looks like he could lose a finger! He just hasnt managed to master the skill quite yet and although i want him to practice and learn its scary haha!!!! I do hold my breathe however and let him do it – he will learn one day!
Good morning,
If you do finger exercises with your little ones like giving them a small ball, play dough, or just Simon say’s Open Shut Them ( there little hands) their little muscles need to limber up.
Now another distraction, during this busy time of year (Holidays) my grandson (3years old) wants grandmo to play, play, play. I do but sometimes I am not able so I save the toy inserts the stores send out and give them a marker and write his name on top. I then have him look at them and circle, box, or put a triangle around the things he wants Santa to bring, but you can do this for birthdays too. I did this for my kids (all 5 of them) and it kept them busy for about 45-1 hour. They get so involved in seeing all the toys.
Worked(s) for me.
My nearly 3 has just started to try the scissors but is a bit all over the place when comes to holding them. I read a tip about starting out cutting play dough but haven’t tried it yet.
As for distraction I find a hug normally fixes most things
Lots of GREAT ideas for scissor skills—but just wanted to caution about photos where the child’s “assist hand” is “thumb under” the paper. This is a big no-no for building efficient skills :(
As a pediatric OT, I always prompt with “thumbs up” — both cutting hand and assist hand—which puts both wrists in neutral position, and gets the paper off the table, with scissors pointing upward— “like a rocket ship taking off”. This will also encourage better upper body posture of sitting up—rather than flexing upper body downward toward the table surface.
Happy cutting!!