If your child is working on mastering scissor skills, this lion cutting activity is a great place to start. They’ll love the challenge of cutting colorful paper strips to give the lion’s mane a much needed trim! And you’ll love how it helps them strengthen their little hands while having fun.
When it comes to building fine motor skills, there’s no better way for kids to practice than through scissor activities! Cutting is an important skill that helps children develop hand-eye coordination, hand strength, and the ability to focus on following lines.
Scissor skills are a key part of early childhood development. They may seem simple, but the action of cutting requires concentration, patience, and control. It also helps prepare kids for other skills like writing and self-care tasks, such as using utensils or dressing themselves.
This lion cutting activity is a perfect way to encourage those skills in a creative, playful way that your child will enjoy. And don’t worry if they’re just starting out—this project is flexible enough for beginners to learn at their own pace!
Why You’ll Love This Lion Cutting Activity
This lion cutting activity is a fun and engaging way to help your child develop essential fine motor skills. Not only will your child be improving their scissor skills, but they’ll also get a sense of accomplishment from creating a colorful lion with a mane they can then cut themselves.
The activity is simple to set up, requires minimal materials, and offers plenty of room for creativity as kids can choose their own colors and designs for the mane.
What You’ll Need
- Colored construction paper (variety of colors for the mane)
- Scissors (child-safe)
- Glue stick
- Printable available below or hand-drawn lion face
- Markers or crayons
- Color Dice
How to Set Up this Lion Cutting Activity
- Prepare the lion face: You can either print out a simple lion face from above and let your child color it in or draw one yourself on a sheet of yellow paper.
- Cut paper strips: Cut several strips of colored construction paper (about 1-2 inch wide) to be used for the lion’s mane. Use a marker to draw lines at different angles across the strips. Tape or glue the strips to the back of the lion head.
- Encourage cutting practice: Grab a color dice, roll it and let your child use their scissors to cut along the frist line of the construction paper strips that matches the dice.
- Continue rolling the dice and cutting that color until the lion’s mane is completed trimmed!
Why Scissor Skills Are Important
Scissor skills are crucial for young children because they help build hand strength and coordination, both of which are essential for tasks like writing, drawing, and using utensils. Cutting with scissors requires a combination of fine motor skills (like controlling hand and finger movements) and hand-eye coordination. Learning to use scissors also teaches patience and focus, as kids have to carefully follow lines and control the pace of their cutting.
Other ways to develop scissor skills include tearing paper, cutting along wavy lines, or even cutting playdough with child-safe scissors. Activities like beading, drawing, and playing with building blocks also help strengthen the same muscles kids use when cutting, giving them more control and dexterity when it’s time to pick up those scissors.
Play2Learn Toddler & Preschool Programs for Curious Toddlers
There is no limit to your toddler’s energy and curiosity. That energy and curiosity although a joy can be challenging at times. Their interest in just about everything around them is what makes them great learners. One and two year olds can soak up so much just from their senses!
But as a teacher or parent that thirst for learning can be exhausting. That is why I created this toddler and preschooler program. To help you get the most out of this time with your curious toddler without having to come up with creative ways to play and interact with them.
Play2Learn for Toddlers includes 20 Units for toddlers. Each 2-week toddler unit has 20 super easy to set up and engaging activities for toddlers 18 months to 3 years.
Play2Learn Preschool which includes 20 Units for preschoolers. Each 2-week preschoolers unit has 20 unique and easy to set up and engaging activities for preschoolers 3 years to 5 years. That’s over 800 learning activities for your toddler and preschooler at your fingertips! So many ideas you and your child will never be bored again!
These toddler and preschool lesson plans and activities will definitely keep you and your toddler and preschooler busy playing and learning!
Click here for more information: Play2Learn
Book: Exciting Sensory Bins for Curious Kids
Did you know I wrote a book of sensory bins? Click here for more information Exciting Sensory Bin for Curious Kids. Or grab your copy at Amazon.
Boring afternoons are made exciting with awesome animal-based bins, like Salty Shark Bay or Yarn Farm. Pretend play bins like Birthday Cake Sensory Play or Bubble Tea Party encourage creativity and imagination. And your kids will have so much fun they won’t even know they’re getting smarter with STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) activities like Sink or Float Soup, Magnetic Letter Hunt or Ice Cream Scoop and Count.
Designed for toddlers 18 months and up.
Book: Super STEAM Activity Book for Kids
Learning all about science, technology, engineering, art, and math sets kids up for scholastic success―and it can be so much fun! Watch kids enjoy building STEAM skills as they color friendly fish, help water find its way to tree roots, solve math problems with mazes, and more.
Find out more and grab your copy here.
Designed for preschoolers 3 years old and up.
Book: Big Book of Riddles for Kids
Riddle me this: What’s an exciting way to practice critical thinking while having a blast? The Big Riddle Book for Kids, of course! From hilarious puns to tough brain teasers, kids can build problem-solving skills with hundreds of riddles tha. t show them how to think outside the box.
- 350 riddles for kids—Have hours of fun with riddles, puns and jokes, and math and logic puzzles that’ll get their wheels turning!
- Level up their skills—Riddles get trickier as kids progress through the book, challenging them as they get better at solving puzzles!
- Double-check their work—Kids can check their answers in the back of the book with a handy answer key.
Help children expand their minds while having fun with this puzzle book for kids!
Designed for kids ages 6 years old and up.
TV Show: Curious Crafting
I’m so excited to share my crafting TV show Curious Crafting which launched in July 2022 on TVOkids and TVOkids YouTube! Season 2 aired in August 2023! My show was also nominated in 2023 for Best Live Action Preschool Series by the Youth Media Alliance Awards of Excellence.
Curious Crafting Season 1 is also now airing in Australia on ABC! Watch it here!
Set in the ultimate crafting space, Curious Crafting is a short form pre-school age series about the joy of making crafts. I lead a rotating cast of adorable little preschoolers (including my own) making magic out of common household objects.
In each episode we transform recycled items into magical crafts like a milk carton school bus, paper bag puppet or cotton pad turtle. The crafters learn and laugh their way through each activity while demonstrating what their young imaginations can create.
Curious Crafting shares the adventure and joy of making art with takeaway lessons for creating crafts at home.
This show designed for toddlers and preschoolers 2.5 years old and up.
