ffinemotor

FINE MOTOR: ACTIVITIES/CUTTING PRACTICE STAGE: Cutting Shapes Share your ideas too. E-mail me at stormie@preschoolbystormie.com

I'm so grateful to Marcia Kridner, from El Paso, Illinois for kicking off this section of my website:
General Cutting Skills: To have the children develop cutting skills, I have been drawing large labeled shapes on the computer and printing them out. The children then cut the shapes out -- they learn and/or review the shape as well as practice their cutting abilities. If time allows, and because children love to glue, they also are given the option of gluing them onto construction paper. This allows them to see their finished cutting project as well as the printed name of the shape.

Here's a fabulous idea from a very generous website visitor who didn't leave a name:

To help children who have difficulty cutting on curves and round shapes, trace the shape with glue and let it dry. This provides resistance to the scissors if children begin to cross over the cutting line.

From Stormie:

I was taught that cutting curved lines and circles is harder for children than cutting straight lines. When instructing children to cut curves and circles, remind them to guide the tip end of the scissors along the pre-drawn line.
It's a good idea to keep papers in the fine motor area that have pre-drawn straight lines on them as well as papers with pre-drawn curved lines on them. For practicing the cutting of shapes, provide papers with pre-drawn straight-lined shapes on them (like squares and rectangles) as well as papers with pre-drawn curved-line shapes on them (like ovals and circles). You can make it more interesting each month by providing thematic shapes. For example, February would be a good time to put pre-drawn hearts out (curved lines) for those who are ready.

To allow all children to be successful at their own level, provide various sizes of different shapes for children to practice cutting out.

If children can cut construction paper thickness with confidence, you can challenge them by providing a thicker material from which to cut shapes.

As it relates to February, if children are ready, you could show them how to cut out a heart from a folded piece of paper (which also provides a thicker medium for them to cut).

As it relates to the "Queen of Hearts" nursery rhyme, you could provide children with pre-drawn shapes to cut from golden colored construction paper to represent the dough of tarts -- since tarts can be in the shape of circles, squares, triangles, rectangles, and so on. By providing various shapes, children can be successful "cutters" at their own level. For example, some children may be more successful at cutting out a square, while others may cut out circles perfectly.

Other fine motor options for this month:
Pinches: If your letter of the day, week, or month is Pp, have children practice "pinching" pieces of playdoh. For example, as one would "pinch" a pie crust rim.

Pre-Math/Fine Motor: If your number of the day, week, or month is 7, or even if it's not, here's a teriffic fine motor activity that I discovered one day (quite by accident) while brushing my teeth: I noticed the lid of the toothpaste had 7 tiny little compartments/divisions in it. Immediately, I thought about how I could have preschoolers drop 7 tiny little gravel pieces into each compartment. Then, I went around my house looking at lids (aerosol spray cans and others). I discovered that many lids have little compartments in them, and with all the different sizes of lids, I imagined all kinds of uses for them.
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Reminder from Stormie: If you would like to begin collecting ALL my current classroom ideas (each on a 4 x 6" index card), as well as new ones that I create, you can do so by ordering my "Activity Cards." Click here to check them out.

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My website address: http://www.preschoolbystormie.com