Kids and scissors are a lovely combination. Cutting little bits or giant swathes of paper is a popular art activity around our house. Chop, chop!
This weekend, I plan to make some snowflakes to decorate our winter scene. I like the idea of making snowflake templates. For me, these are useful so that I make some snowflakes that look like snowflakes. For my daughter, this is an exercise in learning how to move scissors carefully along a line. She also loves to do free-form cutting, so we will do a lot of that.
If you’re folding a paper snowflake, choose fairly thin paper, otherwise the folding itself becomes an exercise in frustration. To make the cutting easy for a preschooler, choose a fairly large piece of paper so that the end result is not fiddly. Choose plain computer paper, a coffee filter, or scrapbooking paper. Cut a square piece of paper and fold it point to point so that it makes a triangle. Fold the triangle in half to make a smaller triangle. Fold the paper a third time in two spots so that there are three triangle-shaped pieces. Fold one piece across the front and one to the back, and you’re ready to go!
At this point, preschoolers will often be content to hack away at the paper, making small holes that can become their snowflake pattern. Adults may want to add a bit more jazz. You can download snowflake templates to trace and cut out.
To create snowflakes that are a little different, use old wrapping paper or scrapbooking paper in a variety of colors. It’s also fun to make coffee filter snowflakes. Tie-dye the coffee filters by drawing on them with a pen, then spraying the filter gently with water. The pen will bleed into the paper. Let the result air dry, then cut it into snowflake shapes. Anything that involves water and felts is sure to be a hit with the preschool crowd.
Use your snowflakes to make Christmas cards or simply to decorate a window!