Cutting shows up all through the school day. Kids cut out shapes for an art project, snip apart number cards for math, trim a picture for a science sort, and cut a label for a folder.
Cutting is a functional task, and it asks a lot of a small pair of hands. One snip combines grasp, two-hand coordination, visual tracking, and attention, all aimed at a line on a page.
The skills inside cutting
Cutting draws on several skills at the same time. Each one also shows up in other parts of the school day.
- Grasp and hand control. Scissors sit thumbs-up, with the thumb in the small loop, the middle finger in the large loop, and the ring finger and pinky tucked. Opening and closing the blades with control is the same graded hand movement used with many classroom tools.
- Bilateral coordination. One hand works the scissors while the other holds, feeds, and turns the paper. This two-hand teamwork is also part of opening containers, managing fasteners, and holding paper steady while writing.
- Hand-eye coordination and visual tracking. The eyes follow the line just ahead of the blades, and the hands adjust the direction of the cut to match. This pairing of eyes and hands supports copying, tracing, and other tool use.
- Attention. Staying on a line from start to finish takes sustained attention to one motor task. The same focus carries into coloring, tracing, and handwriting practice.
- Exploring textures. Paper, card stock, straws, and playdough each push back on the blades in a different way. Cutting different materials gives practice adjusting how much force the hands use.
Pre-scissor skills come first
Pre-scissor skills are the foundation for cutting. Before cutting a line, kids first learn to hold scissors, open and close the blades, and snip. They also learn to manage the paper: hold it, feed it toward the blades, and turn it to cut a shape.
These play-based activities practice the same squeeze-and-release movement and helper-hand work:
- Tongs and tweezers for picking up pom-poms or beads. These target thumb opposition and the open-close grasp pattern used with scissors.
- Clothespins clipped around the edge of a paper plate or a card.
- Spray bottles and hole punches, which give practice with a controlled squeeze.
- Tearing paper into strips or small pieces, which puts both hands to work in different directions.
- Squeezing playdough or rolling it into snakes before snipping.
What one small study looked at
A 2022 classroom study by Ahmad Tarmidi and Bakar followed three 6-year-olds who had no prior experience using scissors. The children used an intervention the authors call a Cutting Kit, and their skills were scored on a scissor skills checklist before and after.
The checklist scores showed improvement in two areas: scissor grip and cutting motion. The authors suggest teachers can use the approach as one option for cutting practice. Check out the resource library for more cutting resources.
Reference
Ahmad Tarmidi, N. A. Z., & Bakar, K. (2022). The use of Cutting Kit in improving young children’s scissor skills. International Journal of Academic Research in Progressive Education and Development, 11(2). Article link