Skill: Cutting

Learning to hold scissors correctly and guide them along a line while holding the paper steady with the other hand. This combines hand strength with coordination.

TP Roll Snake

Pull open the TP roll all the way.

Provide the child with paint and a brush and instruct him to paint it. You can also choose markers or crayons to color the snake.

Once dry, you can have the child use Q-tips to paint the snake, or crumble little pieces of tissue paper, and/or use stickers.

Depending on the child developmental skills, either cut a snake’s tongue out of red construction paper or have him cut it himself.

Finally, the child can glue the tongue and the wiggly eyes on one end of the TP roll. If you don’t have wiggly eyes in hand, you can use small buttons.

Pom pom Bird

For this activity, you will need 3 pom-poms in different sizes. You can use almost any pom-pom color.

Start by instructing the child to cut an oval shape out of the cardboard (length should be about 2″ – 3″).

Glue the large pom-pom (red) to the oval-shaped cardboard. This will be the bird’s body.

Glue the medium pom-pom (red) on top of the large pom-pom. This will be the bird’s head.

Glue the smallest pom-pom (yellow) to the medium pom-pom forming a bird’s beak.

Glue the wiggle eyes above the beak.

Recycled Jug Catcher

For this activity, an adult’s help and supervision are required.

Use a plastic milk container with a handle. Wash the container thoroughly and let dry.

Using a permanent marker, draw a line all the way around the container, about 2 inches up from the bottom. Depending on the child’s developmental skills, ask the child to cut around the line you drew, leaving the handle intact. You may want to help the child at this point and protect from sharp edges. Once you removed the bottom of the container, use the tape to cover the jug’s edges.

Provide the child with different stickers and allow him to decorate the jug to promote pincer grasp. You can also use colored masking tape or paper scraps to decorate your jug.

Take the newspaper and ask the child to ripe large pieces of paper and roll them into balls. Encourage the child to use both hands to ripe and roll the pieces of paper.

Once the jug and the newspaper balls are ready, let the child chose if he wants to first be the pitcher or the catcher. Stand away from each other and have the child either throw the balls into the jug or use the jug to catch the balls you throw. Exchange roles after all the balls are in the jug.

Motor Spider

For this activity you will need to use black paint and black pipe cleaners.

To make the spider’s body, help the child use the scissors and cut out two cup sections from an egg carton. Trim to create even edges.

Using the paint brush, let the child paint the bottom of the cups with the black paint. Let the paint dry.

To make the spider’s legs, take four black color pipe cleaners and align them together. Find the middle point by slightly bending the pipe cleaners in half. Straighten the pipe cleaners and attach all pipe cleaners together, by wrapping a piece of tape around the middle of the pipe cleaners.

Once the egg carton cups are dry, stick the middle section of pipe cleaners in the slit between the two cups. If needed, put another small piece of tape to secure the pipe cleaners from falling out.

Instruct the child to slightly spread the spider’s legs and then bend each leg in half, so the spider can stand. Use red or white paint to draw the spider’s eyes, or use googly eyes if available.

Ice Cream Scooper

Use brown, yellow, or white construction paper. Draw a 1/4 of a circle with a six-inch radius, and ask the child to cut the shape out. If needed, make the line bolder to increase accuracy. If using white paper, you can let the child color/paint it in any color he wishes to.

Assist the child as needed to fold the 1/4 circle into a cone shape. Secure with tape.

Provide the child with tissue paper sheets that are at least 5″ x 7″ in size. Instruct the child to crumble each sheet into a ball (scoop), and place it in the container.

Have the child hold the ice cream scoop in his dominant hand and the cone in his other hand. Instruct the child to scoop the paper balls one at a time, using the ice cream scoop, and put it into the cone.

Using strips of construction paper in different colors, ask the child to tear small pieces to use as sprinkles. Promote pincer grasp by having the child pick up one piece at a time to sprinkle on his ice cream.

To grade the activity, use different ice cream scoops (i.e. with the thumb lever, spring-loaded handle, etc.) or other materials for ice cream, such as pom-poms or play-dough.