Rainbow Confetti Scissor Skills Practice

“Rainbow Confetti” sounds like a party in the making – and it is! Students practice two essential fine motor skills AND create beautiful art – something definitely worth celebrating! This easy center keeps students entertained while working on emerging scissor skills, color sorting, and gluing, all for a low cost and minimal setup from the teacher.

The Importance Of Fine Motor Muscle Building

The small muscles in the hands and wrist are essential to all preschool children. Gaining strength and control of these muscles is crucial for writing later on. They are also crucial for self-care skills such as fastening clothing and using small toys. The repetitive motion of cutting can be quite a workout, much like push-ups for the hand!

Rainbow Confetti Supplies

This is a particularly easy activity to prepare for the students. All the supplies are probably already in the classroom!

• strips of paper in rainbow colors, about one inch wide.
• small containers for sorting
• enough scissors for each child at the station
• glue sticks
• confetti labels and/or letter printouts

Setting Up the Rainbow Confetti Station

Place one-inch wide strips of paper in rainbow colors on a tray in the center of the table. Make sure there are plenty of small containers for sorting the different colors as children cut. And of course, provide some scissors!

One quick note:  if you have noticed any students in your class with strong left-handed tendencies, it would be a good idea to have a pair of scissors specifically for them. Getting a different color for lefty scissors or marking them in an easily identifiable way can save a lot of frustration. If there are students who struggle or are delayed with their fine motor skills, there are several different adaptive styles that can help, and most are relatively inexpensive.

1. First, students cut the pieces and get a workout for their hands.
2. Then they sort the pieces of confetti into separate containers by color– another handy preschool skill!
3. At this point, the teacher can choose to end the activity and send some home or continue to the next part.

These adorable labels are available here! Why send home scraps of paper? Parents need to see the work their child is doing in class. Encourage parents to complement the effort their child has put into making the confetti. They can review the colors, sort them again, or even find creative uses for them.

Turning Rainbow Confetti into Art

More fine motor practice? Yes, please! Students exercise their small muscles in their hands when they grasp the individual pieces of paper, place them on the page, apply the glue from the glue stick and press it down. These adorable sheets are perfect for practicing glue stick skills with the rainbow confetti while getting a little letter identification practice in as well!

Another art option is to glue the colorful pieces onto black construction paper for a cool collage effect!

Here’s a video discussing how to teach scissor skills!

Looking for more fine motor practice?

• Rainbow Fizzy Science engages students while working on those pincher grasp muscles.
• Alphabet Push Pin Practice is a great way to practice letters and fine motor skills all in one simple activity!
• Simple sewing in this easy activity helps students focus on precision and detail!
• NAEYC has some great everyday ways to build fine motor skills in the home as well.

Have fun playing and learning scissor skills with your students today!

This Colors Unit has 10 days of detailed lesson plans designed to teach your preschoolers all about colors!