Colorful Flower Art

Ages:: Preschoolers (3 to 5), School age (6+)
Play time:: 15 to 20 minutes
Setup:: 2 minutes
Where:: Table

Why it helps

Cutting a paper roll gives your child lots of short snips in a row. The helper hand holds and turns the roll while the cutting hand snips, which builds the teamwork between hands that cutting needs.

Steps

Press one end of a paper roll flat with your hands so it is easier to cut.
Ask your child to hold the roll with the helper hand and snip from the flat end toward the middle, stopping about halfway down.
Keep snipping all the way across, with the snips about a finger width apart.
Open the roll back into a tube and show your child how to bend the strips outward like petals.
Let your child paint the roll and the petals with a brush.
Ask your child to crumple a square of tissue paper into a ball for the middle of the flower.
Put a dot of glue inside the roll and press the tissue ball in place.

Safety tip: Stay close while your child uses scissors and keep the blades pointed away from the body. Paint is for paper, not for mouths, so wash hands when you finish.

Make it easier

Draw short lines on the roll for your child to follow.
Make fewer, wider petals, about two fingers apart.
Skip the paint and color the petals with markers.

Make it harder

Draw a line around the middle of the roll and ask your child to stop each snip right at the line.
Snip each petal again to make a thin fringe.
Snip at a slant to make pointed petals.

What to watch for

Notice whether your child moves the roll with the helper hand after each snip.
Watch how far each snip goes. Stopping halfway takes careful control.
If paint on the fingers bothers your child, offer a brush with a longer handle or switch to markers.