Are you in need of a quick fun activity for your preschooler?! This activity works their fine motor skills and helps them to use both hands in an activity! It took me about 5 minutes to put together I had everything on hand!
When I saw this activity I thought this would be a good one for Zack (3yo) because it would force him to use both hands. Right now he’s really interested in using scissors and works hard on trying to use it correctly. When Blake (6yo) heard it was cars and cutting he begged to do it too. Due to his age and his love for cutting he was able finish quickly. Blake has been into cutting for a while and enjoys building things from cardboard so this wasn’t much of a challenge for him. He still had fun and wanted to do more though!
How To Crate It
This activity uses minimal supplies, all you need is small cars, strips of paper, kids scissors, and glue or tape!
Just glue or tape strips of paper around the cars! Blake had kids scissors and I used the scissors that came in the Melissa and Douglas cutting kit for Zack.
What They Learned
This activity worked with their fine motor skills. Fine motor skills are an important building block for things such as writing and self-care since they’ll be buttoning up their shirts and eating.
It also works on their scissor skills since they’ll be using scissors to cut the paper off. They’ll also work on trying to figure out different ways the scissors works and different angles.
Both hands will have to be used. The cars are small enough for them to hold and turn it which they’ll need to do to cut the paper. It was interesting to see how Zack used both his hands to do this. In the beginning, he was having a hard time since he trying to hold the car steady with one hand and move just the scissors. He eventually realized he needed to turn the car to get to certain areas!
What I’d Do Different
Use recycled paper. We have a ton of paper from their school. They send home notices, reminders, save the dates, you name it. I save those paper and use it as scratch paper since we go through a lot of paper and it’s also perfect for this activity! For this activity it could even have writing on both sides since the paper doesn’t have to be blank.
I glued the paper, next time I’d use tape. By using tape I could have done it faster since I wouldn’t have to wait for the glue to dry a bit between each strip so the paper. The paper wouldn’t move and so I could move on to the next strip quicker. Plus the boys could have done it right away!
Use a paper cutter to cut the strips. It makes it a lot quicker to cut the strips and it’s neater.
Try to have them overlap the strips at different points so you have an extra place to put glue/tape and hold it together. It’ll help to keep the paper from slipping off.
For younger kids, you can make it looser so it’s easier to get their scissors between the paper and car.
You can do this with anything! Use what you have and what your kids are interested in which makes it a lot more fun for them!