Sometimes all you need are paper, glue, scissors, and an imagination. Our preschool children enjoy creating works of art using various tools, especially safety-scissors. Cutting with scissors gives children the opportunity to use both hands together while tracking with their eyes. Using scissors also helps build hand muscles and fine motor skills. While children are cutting paper or other material, they are practicing focus and attention. Interestingly, the metaphor “cut a wide swath” means to draw a lot of attention or to make a considerable display of something.
Some unusual haircuts can attract a lot of attention! No one knows precisely who invented scissors, however, sometime before the sixth century a barber named Isidore Seville (recalls the comic opera “The Barber of Seville”) described his favorite tool as “joining of the two blades to comprise a lever.”
During the Romanesque period, scissor-makers were held in high esteem. Other trades created a large demand for scissors. They were used in dressmaking as well as calligraphy, because they could produce clean cuts of cloth and paper. The inventors probably never imagined that one day children would enjoy making arts and crafts using scissors! At Apple Hill Academy, using scissors helps stir the children’s imaginations, while they “cut a wide swath.” We all enjoy every minute of it!
