Does your child need help learning to cut with scissors? These simple cutting worksheets are the perfect way for preschool, pre-K and kindergarten students to strengthen their little muscles and perfect their scissor skills. (And if you have a toddler at home, you can use them for tracing practice, too!)
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Did you have homework to do when you were in kindergarten?
I don’t remember ever having any, but my 5-year-old started kindergarten this year, and her teacher has been sending little assignments home every couple of weeks. So far, they’ve practiced recognizing numbers, learned which sounds the letters of the alphabet make, and memorized their home phone number.
This week’s assignment was learning to cut shapes with scissors, so the kids were sent home with a small piece of paper featuring a few different shapes. But that wasn’t quite enough for my 5-year-old, who struggled with a few of the shapes.
I could see how frustrated she was getting, and I figured the shapes on her worksheet were too small for her to easily cut. So to make things easier for her, I decided to create some worksheets that she could use to get in some extra practice.
That is how these free cutting worksheets came to be.
Cutting with scissors is an essential skill that will also help develop your child’s hand muscles, bilateral coordination and hand-eye coordination. And these preschool worksheets are a great way to do that. So grab the PDFs below to get started!
Like this freebie? Upgrade to the full set!
Is your child still struggling with cutting and tracing?
The full set includes 41 pages of lines and shapes that children can practice tracing and cutting in order to improve their fine motor skills.
Use the coupon code CUTANDTRACE to get 15% off the regular price!
Just want the freebie? Scroll down for the download links.
How to Use These Free Printable Worksheets
This printable can be used in two different ways: you can use it to help your child learn to use scissors, like we did; or you can use them as tracing sheets for younger kids who aren’t quite old enough for scissors.
If you are using them for scissor practice, simply print them out and have your child cut along the dotted lines using plastic safety scissors or blunt tip metal scissors—whichever is more appropriate for your child’s level of development.
If you have young children at home (or in your classroom) and you are using these printable pages to help them practice their fine motor and pencil control skills, print out the page and have your little ones follow the lines with their fingers or trace over them with a pencil or marker.
You can even make the worksheets reusable by laminating each page using thermal laminator or self-laminating sheets, or by placing them inside plastic page protectors or dry erase pockets.
How to Print These Worksheets
After you download each PDF file to your computer, print each scissor skills worksheet on US Letter-sized paper (8.5 x 11 inches). You may need to print the pages several times as your child practices cutting all of the lines and shapes.
You should also be able to print out the pages on A4 paper—simply use the “Scale to Fit” setting on your printer to ensure that all of the printable area fits within the page that is being printed.
Download Your Free Cutting Practice Worksheets
To grab this free resource for your child, click on the download link below each image to be redirected to the free printable PDF—no sign-up required.
Please note that these worksheets are for personal and school use only, and cannot be redistributed. When sharing this printable, please link to this article rather than directly to the files. You can read our full printables terms of use here.
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LINE CUTTING WORKSHEET
The first page of the document is a line cutting worksheet featuring different types of lines for your child to cut, including straight lines, wavy lines and zig-zag lines.
This page is perfect for kids who need to practice cutting basic lines before they can move on to shapes, but it can also be used by toddlers who are learning to cut with safety scissors.
If you are a teacher, feel free to cut in between the lines to create cutting practice strips for your students.
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SHAPE CUTTING WORKSHEET
The second page features 8 different shapes of varying complexity that your preschooler can use to refine their cutting skills and make them more precise.
The shapes with more curves and angles tend to be more difficult for kids to cut, so you may want to start them off with a square or triangle if they’ve just graduated from lines.
Can I Use This Printable in My Classroom?
Absolutely! I am always happy to help out fellow educators who are looking for a fun way to teach their students. Feel free to print out these worksheets and use them in your classroom, or to send your students home with a printed copy.
More Ways for Kids to Practice Their Scissors Skills
These simple practice pages are one way to help your child learn to cut with scissors, but if ever they prefer a more hands-on approach, there are lots of different activities you can try to help them learn this important skill. Here are a few things you can try:
- Using plastic scissors to cut play dough
- Adding some scissors to a shredded paper sensory bin
- Making collages
- Doing cut-and-paste activities
- Cutting the “hair” on silly paper roll people (this one is adorable!)
What If My Child Needs More Help?
If ever you use this free printable to help your child and they still need more shape cutting practice, you may want to check out this 41-page bundle from our shop!
Unlike the freebie in this article, the full bundle features shapes in a variety of different sizes. This means that your child can start out cutting larger shapes, then slowly increase their precision skills by cutting smaller shapes as their abilities and comfort level grow.
Our 5-year-old was having trouble with some of the shapes (particularly circles and stars) and she found it so much easier to have access to practice sheets with different-sized shapes. Starting off with larger shapes and slowly reducing their made her feel a lot more confident in her abilities.
The full bundle is available in our shop, and if you enter the coupon code CUTANDTRACE at checkout, you’ll get 15% off the regular price!
Related Fine Motor Printables for Kids
Looking for more fun printables to help your kids practice their fine motor skills? Check out these articles:
its amazing… thank you so much for this free pfd.. very usable..
I’m so glad you found it helpful!!