Snipping Play-Doh

Tools

1. Play-Doh

2. Scissors

Activity Description

We will practice the beginning stages of cutting with scissors. Snipping Play-Doh is a great place to start learning how to properly position fingers into scissors and learn to use a thumb-up approach. Sequencing the opening and closing of scissors can be a challenging task for little hands. Join us as we learn these important steps to improve our scissor cutting skills!

Steps

• Step 1: Begin by rolling Play-Doh into the hands to warm-up the muscles.

• Step 2: Manipulate the Play-Doh into a ball and tear a piece off. Step 3: Roll the Play-Doh between the hands or on the table into a hotdog or snake figure.

• Step 4: Place fingers properly into the scissors. The thumb is placed in the small hole, whereas the index and middle fingers are placed in the larger hole. It is also proper to place the index finger at the front of the larger hole where you can find an indentation.

• Step 5: Maintain a thumb-up approach with the scissors and practice opening and closing the scissors so snip the Play-Doh.

• Step 6: Use the remainder of the Play-Doh to practice steps 3-5.

Goals

Snipping is a beginning stage of scissor skill development. It is extremely important for children to learn proper finger positioning into the scissors, maintaining a thumb-up approach, and beginning to use a helper hand to assist with stabilizing an item when cutting. If a child is not able to snip properly, one can expect to find they have difficulty with cutting lines as well. We begin at this stage and once it is mastered, we will move to cutting a paper in half.