Our favorite holiday crafts are ones that target a range of motor skills like bilateral coordination, grasp, and hand strength. This snipped up Christmas tree covers all the bases!
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We love the holidays! It’s our favorite time of year – the music, the food, the movies, the decorations, the shopping…and above all, the holiday crafts! This time of year is perfect for getting kids involved in creating their own holiday masterpieces (while also working on building fine motor skills, of course!). You’ll find some of our favorite holiday craft ideas at the end of this post.
Today, we’re showing why the holidays are a great time to introduce and focus on scissor skills with kids. There are so many awesome Christmas art projects and craft ideas that can give kids the extra practice they needed to feel comfortable and confident using this tricky tool. Scissor skills definitely don’t come easily for all kids, so the more opportunities they get to explore how they work, the better! This holiday craft is perfect for this!
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Holiday Crafts: Snipped Up Christmas Trees!
What You’ll Need:
-Free printable tree templates
-Scissors
-Craft supplies to decorate your tree ( optional)
What to Do:
Cut around the outline of the tree template, or if the child can do it themselves, have them cut on the outline only (not on the smaller lines on the inside of the tree).
Next, kids will fold the tree shape on the center line (so they will be creating a vertical crease in their template). folding paper can be tricky for little hands and is a great opportunity to work on bilateral coordination skills.
Once the tree is folded in half, it’s time to create a 3-D effect on the branches of the tree. Kids will hold the tree template and their non-dominant hand, keeping it folded in half and snip across the lines from the edge of the tree toward the center line. This is a great way to work on self-regulation and accuracy with scissors, because if kids cut too far, they will cut their tree right in half!
Finally, have kids open their tree template back up to see how they created the branches of their Christmas tree! They can even roll or gently bend the branches of their tree to enhance the 3-D effect.
Now it’s time to use all of those craft supplies to decorate your tree! You can use markers, Kwik Stix
How to Change it Up:
-Try a paper-folding practice session before you start the actual craft. Give kids pieces of paper and have him practice folding in different ways. Draw lines on the paper and show them how to fold on the lines.
-At the end of each of the branch lines, you may want to draw a dot or use a sticker to indicate where the child should stop cutting.
-Try printing the tree templates on card stock instead of regular paper. This could be helpful for kids who are just getting the hang of using scissors because it provides valuable proprioceptive feedback with each snip! It also holds up a little bit better so that kids can more easily manage and turn their paper while they cut.
Skill Areas Addressed:
Scissor skills, bilateral coordination, visual motor integration, hand strength, coordination
Other Things to Try:
[…] Snipped Up Christmas Trees (another great activity for promoting scissor skills) […]