A year ago, I was in the office supply aisle looking at kids’ safety scissors (for myself, surprisingly enough!). The ones available had blunt ends but were still pretty sharp looking.
I remember thinking how on Earth do you teach kids to use scissors without them cutting a finger off?
Fast forward about a year later, and I’m buying safety scissors, yet again, this time for a toddler. I went with these because they looked pretty, and best of all, they looked safe.
Turns out…. those scissors are a little too safe.
They can barely cut paper! So for a beginner scissor user, these scissors did not make the cut.
See what I did there?
All that to say, the scissors sucked at cutting paper, but they were perfect for cutting play dough.
Now I feel like I’ve found the ultimate “safe scissors” practice activity. These plastic scissors + play dough = scissors skills gold.
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How to Practice Scissor Skills with Play Dough
This activity is simple. Give your toddler a pair of scissors and a big ball of dough.
They can roll the dough into logs and snip away.
Or they can press or roll out the dough into sheets and cut.
Need Some Play Dough Recipes?
- Try this apple cinnamon play dough.
- Or this peppermint scented play dough.
- Maybe glitter play dough is your jam.
I’m so glad we were using the plastic scissors for practice because Elena accidentally snipped her finger with the scissors two different times.
She seemed surprised that it hurt. I realized I forgot to tell her that scissors can be dangerous if you’re not careful with them.
Well… not these scissors. Not technically.
To give all this scissor work some purpose, I added a paper Christmas tree for Elena to add the snipped play dough pieces to for ornaments.
She also used the snipped pieces as sprinkles for her play dough cookies.
By the end of the day, Elena seemed much more comfortable using scissors.
Which was my goal all along.
Will You Try Scissors Practice with Play Dough?
It’s so easy to set up, and you can use the most blunt, dull scissors you have and it will still cut through the play dough like butter!