Cutting primary color pasta is a fun kids activity for toddlers and preschoolers to practice scissor skills, advance fine motor control and promote bilateral coordination.
The primary color pasta cutting kids activity is super fun! Besides, it is simple to set up and it reinforces conceptual understanding of the three primary colors: red, yellow, and blue. Most importantly, you will be offering your child a hands-on opportunity to exercise fine motor skills by cutting with scissors.
YOU’LL NEED for Pasta Cutting Kids Activity
- a tray to present an activity
- pasta (try to use pasta that expired or is otherwise not suitable for eating ~ be mindful of using food for sensory play)
- food coloring
- scissors
Instructions for Primary Colors Scissor Skills Practice
Option 1: First, cook pasta according to the instructions of a box. While cooking it, add a few drops of a single food coloring. Once the pasta is cooked, rinse it with cold water to prevent further cooking. Repeat for red, yellow and green colors.
Option 2: (might stain hands) Alternatively, you can cook all pasta together and then divide it into three ziplock bags. Thereafter, add primary color to each bag, zip it closed, and mix well. Once mixed, lay colored pasta out to dry just enough that the color absorbs and does not stain the fingers. Do NOT let it dry completely!
TIP: Offer your child to cut the pasta BEFORE it dries completely as it will harden, making it almost impossible to cut.
Proper Scissors Grip Trick:
When I first taught Adrian to use scissors, I offered him to say, “Nice to meet you, Mr. Scissors!” and asked him to pick up the scissors as if he was offering to shake my hand. Also, note that a child must rely on his/her non-dominant hand to stabilize the object s/he is cutting while the dominant hand uses the scissors, so frequent practice will improve the non-dominant’s hand coordination.
Pasta Cutting Kids Activity
Like the proper pencil grip, the proper scissors grip must be actively taught since it is completely unlike any other grip your child is used to. Most children explore with their hands and palms facing downward, or they default to holding small items with the pincer grip (with their thumb and pointer finger). The proper scissors grip, on the other hand, requires a child to rotate his/her hand so that the thumb faces upward and the pinky finger points at the floor. Then, he must spread his thumb and pointer finger as far apart as possible while using his palm to help stabilize the scissors.
Offer your child as many opportunities for cutting until the proper grip is automatic since little ones might find cutting to be a challenging skill that will only become comfortable with frequent practice. And reinforce the practice with constant verbal reminders of how to move fingers when using scissors since, otherwise, a child will likely revert to an incorrect grip (or to use both hands to open and close the blades of the scissors) which will allow cutting but without any precision or efficiency. So, offer various enticing scissors cutting activities to promote the practice and be persistent and consistent in reinforcing the proper scissors grip.
Pasta Threading Kids Activity
Once the pasta dries out and can not be cut anymore, put those little hands to use while practicing fine motor skills by threading!
More Scissor Skills Practice Activities
DIY Cars Wash Straight Paper Cutting
See HERE ✂️Scissors •DIY 🚗Car Wash.
Cutting Paper Snips 2 Yo
See HERE a lesson on simple strip-cutting “Proper ✂️Scissors Grip 2 Yo.”
DIY Hearts Stickers Curve Cutting
Lastly, see HERE DIY ❤️Valentines Heart Stickers ✂️ Scissors 🎥 Cutting Activity
Always supervise your child
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