Combining scissor skills with sensory play, let’s go pick some flowers!
Scissor skills activity with flowers
Do you encourage your children to pick flowers, or tell them not to? When I asked this question recently on the NurtureStore facebook page there was a variety of answers. Most people said yes they do, but several people remembered their own childhood when the flowers, and even the grass, in their local parks were definitely hands-off areas. We talked about teaching children to use careful judgement when deciding what, where and how much to pick: to know some plants are edible; some shouldn’t be touched; some are under threat, or vital food for bees and butterflies, and should be left in their protected habitat; and others are abundant and can be picked enthusiastically.
My daughter loves to pick the flowers in our garden. In my book The Garden Classroom I talk about setting up a Snipping Garden so children can freely pick flowers to include in play – to decorate cakes in their mud pie kitchen, as food for the fairies in the fairy garden, to use as counters in math activities, or loose parts to go with garden play dough.
Combining garden flowers with a pair of scissors is a great way to encourage children to develop with scissor skills. My daughter played for most of the morning with her basket and a pair of scissors. She enjoys choosing which ones to pick, and uses the scissors to cut them into pieces. She makes confetti for a wedding. She makes patterns with the petals. She invents creatures called Chompers who roam the garden collecting petals to eat.
Do you know the names of all the flowers in my daughter’s basket? As she picks and plays, she’s learning their names, how the smell, how they feel, which ones she can eat.
What if everybody picked a flower? Maybe they’d care more about nature. – Emma Marris
What’s your approach: do you encourage your children to pick the flowers?
More fun scissor skills activities
Click through for more fun ways to work on scissor skills.
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