These free Christmas scissor skills printables are a great way for little hands to get extra cutting practice this holiday season. Simply print the scissor skills worksheets, grab a pair of scissors, and get started.
Best Scissors for Young Children
For small children who are just beginning to work with scissors, I’d recommend these easy squeeze scissors. It allows them to use their whole hand to squeeze the scissors. Encourage your child to put their thumb on the top. Safety scissors are another option with a reminder to put their thumb in the smaller hole.
Child’s First Time Using Scissors
If it is your chid’s first time using scissors, try cutting strips.
- Cut out a few strips of blank card stock ahead of time.
- Make them about half an inch to an inch thick.
- Put stickers or stamps along the strip, spaced out evenly.
- Encourage your child to make small cuts on the strips of paper between each sticker.
- Help to hold the strip tight as the child cuts between each sticker.
Cutting strips will allow your child to feel successful using the scissors with each small snip. You can also make a cutting box that includes hundreds of these strips. Children will be drawn to cutting them over and over again. You can use the pieces that are cut in a collage activity.
What to do if Your Child is Having a Hard time using Scissors
Using scissors is an important skill. But, if it seems difficult for your child to use scissors, provide opportunities to build hand strength.
Activities that build hand strength include:
- using spray bottles
- squeezing glue bottles
- working with play dough or clay
- squeezing sponges
- working with clothes pins
- pop bubble wrap
- crumple pieces of paper into balls
Offering your child or class these types of activities often, will help build hand strength. It isn’t a one time activity. It takes hours of this type of play to build strength and coordination. This fine motor skills checklist is a great resource if you are concerned.
One thing I love about these scissor practice worksheets is that they only have straight lines. This is perfect for young children to start with! Encourage your child or students to cut on the dashed lines, but know that it won’t be perfect. I always remind myself that it is more important that they are spending time using the scissors than what the final product looks like.
If your child becomes frustrated with not being able to stay on the line, encourage them to keep trying and let them know that it takes a lot of practice. But you know they can do it!
Turn These Printables into Puzzles
A fun way to extend this activity is to turn these pages into puzzles. Put a number on each strip along the right side of the practice sheets. After your child cuts along the dotted lines, he can mix them up and then put them back together like a puzzle.
If they need practice using glue, add a piece of paper to glue them back together on. This is so much fun for younger kids and great for their hand-eye coordination! My students like to cut the puzzles for each other and switch to see if a friend can put it together.
The Christmas free printable worksheets include:
- present
- tree
- ornament
- mittens
- gingerbread man
- santa
- jingle bells
Children will love to cut these images over and over again. So print many copies onto card stock to allow them the chance to keep cutting as long as they want to. Don’t limit them to one page. If they are willing to spend time cutting, allow them as many pages as they want.
Download the Christmas Scissor Skills Pack
Looking for more scissor skills printables? These printable pages will be perfect for all through the year. They also include straight lines to cut on and a puzzle mat to glue them back onto.
Check out our other free printables that strengthen fine motor skills. From scissor skills to q-tip painting, there are so many great ways to get creative and build fine motor skills!