Young children love using scissors and it’s so important to give them lots of opportunities to sharpen their scissor skill set on items other than paper. What could be easier than offering your children the chance to practice their cutting skills on yard scraps or items found on a nature walk?

You need:

• Scissors
• Nature items (leaves, weeds, twigs, etc)
• Optional: bins for organizing

Using bins to organize your cut and uncut natural items is helpful but not necessary.

Sometimes children cut just to cut and other times children might be interested in creating artwork with their cut items. We often use a tree stump as our art canvas or a piece of cardboard or storage bin top. If it’s windy, adding tape can be helpful.

Adding a smiley face to your child’s thumbnail and offering the prompt to “keep your smiley face up!” can be helpful to young children as they learn to master scissor skills. Thumbs up for this fun, easy, and free activity!