How To Teach a Preschooler To Cut With Scissors

Choose plastic scissors that are sized to fit comfortably in your child’s hand. They should have dull, rounded edges.

Hold them so they can see where their fingers go: thumb in the front hole, index and middle fingers in the back hole, ring finger and pinky on the outside for support. Then help them put their fingers in the right spots.

Now demonstrate the cutting motion. Explain that when they bring their fingers apart, the scissors open, and when they bring them back together, the scissors close. Have them hone their skills on easy-to-cut objects that don’t require precision, such as a thin layer of play clay, or plastic straws.

Once they’re handling scissors with ease, they can move on to paper. Start with card stock, which is firmer than other paper.

Finally, draw dotted lines on construction paper so they can learn how to cut straight lines. Move on to drawing wavy lines, or complete circles. Before you know it, they’ll be craft experts.