Scissor Happy- Easy Cut and Paste Activities for Little Ones

Noodle has just mastered the technique of using scissors to cut paper, so cut and paste activities are very popular with her at the moment. This means paper cuttings all over the house but I have indulged her as this is great for encouraging the development of fine motor skills. (Also, these are activities which she can do on her own with little intervention from my side, so I can get some work done while she does these).

Here are some of the cut and paste activities we have been doing:

• "Shopping cart"- This is something Noodle requests over and over. We draw a big trolley on a piece of paper. Then I give Noodle some grocery store pamphlets and get her to cut and paste the items she is 'buying'. I sometimes add a twist by telling her to find only healthy food or some other specific category of items. Another variation of the above is that we draw a house and make her cut and paste furniture and other items and place them in the correct room of the house. 
• I let her cut out shapes using paper, foam, wool and cardboard and paste these onto paper to create pictures.
• Paper jewellery creations- I let her cut strips of paper and glue the ends together to make bracelets. Several smaller, thinner 'bracelet' loops can also be interlinked to make paper necklaces. Larger sheets of paper or cardboard can be used to make crowns.
• We have tons of paper plates left over from past birthdays and these are cut to make masks (Pooh Bear and the Ninja Turtle ones were big hits), flowers, clocks and many more. 
  
  
• I help Noodle to make 'snowflakes' out of paper. (Use a square piece of paper, fold in quarters and then cut patterns).
  
• Craft scissors can be used to create all kinds of exciting patterns (though Noodle still finds these hard to use).
• There is also a wealth of cutting printables available online and these also prove to be popular.

Obviously, with children, blunt nosed safety scissors should always be used. We try to recycle where possible using leftover material from other projects.