Scissors and Pencils

Using pencils and scissors can be really tricky for little hands and it requires practise.  In school we will do lots of activities to strengthen gross and fine motor skills but there are lots of fun things you can do at home to help too.  

Cutting skills

We will teach your children how to hold a pair of scissors and handle them safely but there is no harm in giving them a head start.  Cutting accurately is hard and children can become very frustrated if they struggle.  Make sure you use child friendly scissors and not great big cutting shears. If your child is left handed, do invest in left handed scissors.  Start with a smiley face on their thumb for them to hold upright as they cut.  Try to start with cutting soft things that don't require strength, such as spaghetti.  

Other nice cutting ideas include: 

-make play dough sausages/worms for them to cut in half.

-grow cress in an egg shell to make a little cress person and give them a haircut.

-head out into the garden and cut grass along the boarders or cutting herbs for the kitchen

-use other soft materials like jelly as part of some messy play.  

-draw wiggly lines on A4 paper for them to follow

Fine Motor skills

These are such important skills that enable children to do little fiddly independent tasks, such as their own zips and using cutlery, and are the starting point for their writing skills.  There is a wealth of ideas on Pinterest but here are a few simple things you can do at home to help:

-make pasta necklaces

-thread cheerios onto uncooked spaghetti

-threading beads

-playing with play dough

-peel off stickers when playing with a sticker book

-use the kitchen tongs or a pair of tweezers to pick up objects

-give them all sorts of pencils and crayons to practise drawing on paper