Fine Motor Skills: Cutting Straws Activity

When I spot an idea for an activity I know my kids will love, I save it on my phone and then try to make it happen in the coming weeks. When I saw the simple idea of cutting straws as a way to strengthen fine motor skills (and provide a fantastic opportunity for scissor practice), I knew my kids would be 100% on board!

This fine motor skills activity was easy to make happen!

I grabbed some colorful straws I had on hand in one of my kitchen drawers, a tray (and a large plastic bowl) for my kids to use to contain their “mess”, and a pair of child-safe scissors for each of them!

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I think I found these wide milkshake/smoothie straws on a shopping trip to the outlets in Pigeon Forge, TN (one of my favorite places to shop – and eat!), but any straws will do. These were extra fun, because they are a little larger than regular straws.

We kicked things off by cutting our straws in half…and then half again…and then half again…and on and on it went until we had tiny little pieces. One of my kiddos had been learning about halves, so that was the perfect way to extend this activity for them! We also did some measuring, which is another skill we’re working on right now – and something they love to do! Then, I let them free cut – and they played for a long time.

While they played, I turned on a fairly calm Pandora station and got started making dinner!

Another fun idea: Your kids can thread the cut up pieces of straw onto pipe cleaners – another great fine-motor skills activity, but also a chance to practice creating patterns.

Don’t skip the free play/exploring piece of this as I believe some of the BEST learning happens when we let our kids guide the way!