Cutting and Gluing With a Preschooler

This project was purely child-directed.  My 3 yo grand daughter was watching a show on PBS and saw some kids cutting paper.  She asked me what they were doing.  I answered and asked her if she would like to cut too.  Of course she didn’t hesitate to say yes!

We got out some construction paper and safety scissors and practiced cutting.  At first Sweet Pea (one of her nicknames), had to get the hang of putting her fingers in the handles of the scissors.  (Watching this was very comical!)  Then “grammie” helped her by holding the paper and saying, “open” and “cut”.  After she cut into the edge of the paper a few times she put the scissors down and began to tear the paper, which appeared to be just as appealing.  After we had plenty of little pieces everywhere, we gathered them into a bowl.  We also squirted some glue on a plastic container lid and she went to town making art!!  Here’s how she did it:

First she picked a piece of paper,

dipped it in the glue,

and stuck it on the paper over here,

and over here…

until she made ALL of these!

What a simple way to have fun–and it lasted 40-some minutes!

(These results may not be typical.)

For more cutting skill activities, this book might be just what you are looking for: