SCISSOR SKILLS FOR 4-5 YEAR OLDS

In our last blog post we overviewed some ways to get your young preschooler’s fine motor skills ready for scissoring and the demands of kindergarten. Here are a few fun ways to engage your older preschooler while improving fine motor skills!

TONGS:

• Use tongs to play Connect 4

• Use tongs to place marbles on an upside down bath mat

• Use tongs to stack blocks

• Play Operation with the mini operating tongs

KITCHEN PLAY:

• Use pipettes and eye droppers for food coloring activities i.e. cups of food coloring/ color play, tie dyeing coffee filters

• Try chopsticks (rubber band at top to facilitate usage) to pick up marshmallows

SCISSOR PRACTICE:

• Play “what’s hiding in the grass?”- tape the top piece of green construction paper over a paper with images on it- have the kids cut in lines to make it look like grass to reveal the bugs and roots beneath it

GET ON YOUR BELLY:

• Continue providing opportunities for prone activities- propped up on their elbows to color/ draw/ play games to strengthen core and shoulder girdle muscles

• Try the icicle activity- draw jagged lines on a white piece of paper and have the kids

  cut them out to resemble icicles to hang around the walls of the classroom

• Have kids draw a face on a paper plate and practice using scissors to cut the top of the plate in lines to make it look like hair!