I don't know about you, but my little one is fascinated with scissors. Probably because kids love anything that is potentially dangerous. He is always asking to cut things so I wanted to build on this interest and incorporate nature by creating a scissor practice basket.
We filled the basket with some flowers that were starting to wilt in a vase, but we've also collected leaves and other plants from the yard to use for our scissor practice baskets. The activity is both Reggio Emilia and Montessori inspired with its use of natural objects which are naturally engaging to young children. Using plants and flowers for scissor baskets open up wonderful discussions about parts of a flower and other plant vocabulary and best of all they are free!
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MATERIALS FOR NATURE SCISSOR PRACTICE:
- Leaves, grasses, stems + flowers
- Basket
- Safety scissors
- Optional: Hole punchers
NATURE SCISSOR PRACTICE:
- Involve your toddler in collecting leaves, grasses, stems and flowers from outside. You can sort through the items afterwards together or separately to weed out any items that might be too thick or difficult to cut.
- Choose a few nature objects at a time to put in a basket with a pair of safety scissors and hole punch.
- Review scissor rules with your little one and then let them experiment and practice (with close parent supervision).
TIP: Put a sticker, stamp or draw an X on the thumb of their dominant hand. Remind them that the sticker/x should always be facing up so they know their scissor grip is correct. You can do the same to the top of the thumb hole on the scissors.
LITERARY CONNECTIONS
- Read the The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and make connections to the caterpillar chewing holes through the food and the big green leaf before hole-punching leaves of their own.
- Read Grandpa Green by Lane Smith and make connections to the Grandpa trimming the hedges into different shapes.
EXTENSIONS
- Incorporate parts of a plant vocabulary or plant/flower identification.
- Use cut up plants or hole-punched leaves to make environmentally-friendly confetti.
- Add cut up plants (especially great if you were cutting herbs/fragrant flowers) to homemade Playdough for a fun sensory activity.
- Add to mud kitchen or water table to make plant "soup" or pretend food.
- Stick cut up plants to sticky contact paper to create nature collages.
SHOW US HOW YOU USED YOUR NATURE SCISSOR PRACTICE BASKET!
Tag your photos of your little one's using their nature scissor practice basket with @ureadyteddy and we'll share our favorites in our instagram stories!
