The Heart of Play

Snip n’ Stick

What: A cutting and pasting activity that involves children using scissors to cut or use pre-cut magazine paper to assemble a collage.

• Materials: scissors, glue stick, coloured paper, magazines, pre-cut shapes
• Actions: selecting, cutting, arranging, and gluing
• Environment: at a table with adult supervision

So What: The activity supports multiple developmental domains and aligns with the four foundations of learning from How Does Learning Happen? (2014).

• Fine Motor Development: strengthens hand muscles and coordination needed for writing and self-care
• Cognitive Skills: Encourages planning, sequencing, and spatial awareness
• Language and Expression: Children describe their creations, building vocabulary and storytelling skills
• Social-Emotional Growth: Builds confidence, autonomy, and a sense of accomplishment
• Belonging and Engagement: Children feel connected when sharing their work and collaborating with peers

Now What: To extend and scaffold the activity:

• Differentiative Tools: Offer adaptive scissors or pre-cut shapes for children with emerging motor skills
• Add Complexity: Introduce themes (e.g., emotions, seasons, community helpers) or integrate with literacy (e.g. new vocabulary or storytelling)
• Encourage Reflection: Ask children to explain their choices or narrate their collage
• Incorporate Technology: Use digital tools to photograph and document their work for portfolios
• Connect to Curriculum: Link to math (shapes, patterns), science (nature collages), or social studies (family trees)

This activity was inspired by the fascination and engagement of students wanting to place stickers on paper. One of the activities the educators in placement regularly set out is a variety of stickers and coloured paper. The children just love peeling off the stickers and placing them onto coloured paper, proudly showing off their work to their parent at pick-up time.

When I came across old scholastic magazines in the scrap box, I thought of this activity. I cut up different book titles, characters and graphics from some of the magazines. I left some magazine pages intact so the kids could also practice using scissors and do their own cuttings. Through this activity, we were able to get a better understanding of which child needed further support with scissor usage. With this information, the educators can offer more activities involving scissor practice or other activities to help refine their motor-skills.

As the children perused the magazine pages or chose which clipping to glue onto the paper, we were able to point to the images, characters and letters supporting their language development. Seeing a clipping of Pete the Cat, one of the students was able to make the connection that we have a book with that character on the bookshelf. When a child chose a book cover clipping, the educator asked her if she knew who the character was? She responded by saying, “Peppa”. We also emphasized actions of cutting and snipping and connected them to the tools used for those actions, the scissors. When a child chose a pair of scissors, I named the colour stating, “this is a blue scissor”. I was happy to hear a student point to the scissors and say, “I cut” and having completed the action, excited proclaimed “I did it”.

This activity can be extended to further support emergent learners with adaptive scissors and activities involving grasp and release, playdoh cutting and paper tearing to refine their motor skills. The magazines or paper to cut can be altered to suit interests and further language acquisition. A nature magazine, for example, will build vocabulary around natural elements, land forms, or animals. Whereas a cooking magazine will elicit words and phrases about food. A cutting activity with shapes or different types of lines (dotted, zigzag, etc.,) will connect with math concepts. Promoting sense of belonging and well-being, the activity can be altered where children cut and paste photos of their family members onto a classroom family tree.

References:

Ontario Ministry of Education. (2014). How does learning happen? Ontario’s pedagogy for the early years: A resource about learning through relationships for those who work with young children and their families. Queen’s Printer for Ontario. https://www.ontario.ca/edu