Leprechaun Scissor Practice

I am a preschool teacher, but I would venture to guess that you would have a hard time finding any sort of children's scissors in my house.  There must be one pair here, but believe me...we aren't using them with any regularity.  That's why you send your kids to preschool, right!?

Well, this is a scissor practice sheet that I have put together for my preschoolers in honor of the upcoming St. Patrick's Day holiday...and because the idea of doing anything wintery could force me to pull my hair out.  Shoot...I may even print out an extra copy and try it with my own preschooler at home...that is if I can find those silly scissors.  :-) 

Turn on "teacher voice"

 

Do you want to know why scissor skills are so important? 

• The same muscles that help move those blades up and down will also help us write one day. 
• Watching a line and guiding our hand to follow it, forces us to develop hand-eye coordination.
• Using a scissor requires children to use both sides of their body at the same time.  One hand is cutting while the other hand is holding and guiding the paper.  This bilateral coordination is an important skill for overall development. 

This practice sheet is also designed to encourage kiddos to work from left to right which is a pre-reading skill.  It also encourages working from top to bottom.

 

The bottom "shamrock snip" is a confidence booster.  This section, not matter how the child may have struggled along the St. Patty's Day paths, should be fun and quick for any child to complete.  Even though it may not be as difficult, it is still encouraging that muscle development.

 

 

So, go grab those scissors and let your little ones cut.  I promise that the more you do it, the more comfortable everyone will be.

 

Alphabet Easter Eggs

My in-betweener has proven to me, as of late, that he is no longer a baby.  In fact, he is much more a big boy than he is my chubby, cheeked, cherub baby.  For Valentine's Day, the boys spent an afternoon making Valentines for their grandparents.  I was surprised, amazed, proud, saddened to see my three and a half year old write his name.  Legibly.  Thank goodness he goes to preschool, because this mama wouldn't' have ever thought to work on that...yet...in my eyes, he was just too little.

Watching his eyes light up as his Grandpa "read" his name on the card, simply, melted my heart.  Watching him write his name on the side of my dusty van in the Target parking lot, made me say, "Wow!"  He's ready to learn.  Okay, he's always been learning...but now we are moving on to big boy stuff. 

Tonight, I put together something that I am going to present to him and my preschoolers at school.  I fashioned a set of Easter eggs. 

For my little guy, I have printed all of our family names on eggs...one letter at a time.  I'll give him his name letters first and let him put them in order.  I'll then go on to "M-O-M" and "D-A-D" before giving him the letters for his sister's and brother's names. 

For my preschoolers, I have three random letters printed on each egg.  I am going to ask them to read them to me as their "ticket" into preschool each morning.  It should be a fun way to work on our letters in a non-threatening way.  Their caregivers help them practice their address and phone number each morning before class...the eggs will be inside those envelopes so caregivers can help with the letters, if needed.

I have a set of blank eggs, here, for you if you're interested.  If you have an older child working on sight words you could try writing those on the eggs.  If you have a toddler, maybe just a blank set would be fun for them to manipulate.  Print two copies and you can make yourself a matching game.  Seriously, the possibilities are endless.  Four copies with letters or numbers or pictures and you could make your own, "GO FISH," game.  I could go on and on and on. 

Please let me know how you use them.  I love getting new ideas.