Video: Straight cuts

﻿Hi. I'm really looking forward to our lesson today. I hope you are, too. Before we get started, this is just a little reminder. We're here to support any approaches you might already be using, and any work you might have already been set. We know that this lesson is going to be going out to so many different children and families, so if you're not sure about anything or have any questions, then please do contact your usual therapy team. Hi. I'm really excited about today's lesson. It's all about cutting straight lines, which is such an important skill. And once we can do this really well, it makes so many things much easier for us. So, as I said, we're going to be looking at cutting straight lines today. Please note: in this lesson, we will be using scissors, so please make sure you are sitting down to do your cutting, make sure an adult is always with you while you are cutting, cut away from your body, carefully watch what you are cutting, always hold scissors by the handles and not the blades, don't run while holding scissors, and only cut things which an adult has said is okay to cut. But why is it so important that we need to practise this skill? If you think about it, we use scissors all the time. For example, when we're cutting up wrapping paper to do a gift, or if we're opening a parcel, we're going to use scissors, or when we need to cut out pictures. When we use scissors, it helps us to practise lots of the skills from our previous lessons, so we're just building on all of those skills we've learned. We have to use the muscles in our hands, we have to make small, accurate movements, and we have to aim carefully, and our eyes and our hands have to work together really well. We start with cutting straight lines to practise getting used to holding the paper and controlling the scissors. For this lesson, you're going to need several pieces of paper. You can have thin paper and card, some scissors and a thick pen, marker pen. Restart once you're ready. Okay, so, I want you to ask an adult to draw a thick line coming off of one edge of a piece of paper, okay. If you've already watched the video about using a ruler, then you can do that for yourself. How awesome would that be? Okay, then I want you to take your scissors and cut along that line, trying to stick as closely as possible as you can and ending exactly where the line ends, okay. Now, your lines don't have to be drawn with a ruler. If you want, you can simply just draw with a pencil. So there's a line there, okay. And this is a really good position for holding your scissors because this finger has got so much power that we can really control the scissors. Whenever we're using scissors, we always want to try and have our thumbs facing upwards. Okay, so thumbs up. You can see that thumbs up, and thumbs up, yep. And when we're going to cut, we're going to open our scissors. You can see that. You can see the line. Let me make that line a little bit thicker for us because you might not be able to see it so well, so let's make that line a little bit thicker. So again, as I said, good position for your hands to be in. There you've got your line. Okay. Open your scissors. There you go. You're going to find the edge and snip. Okay. And when you get to the end, open your scissors again and cut. Right. When your line is thicker, it's easier. So to make it trickier, you can make your line thinner and also longer. Pause the video now to try cutting to a target. So, we can also cut all the way through the paper, and that would simply mean that your line that's going to be drawn is going to be drawn all the way from one end of the paper to the other. So, I'll draw another line for you. I'm going to challenge myself and do a thin line this time. Well, thinner than the last time. Okay. And, again, you're going to have that position. Yeah. You can also, I'm going to show you this time, you can get loads of different scissors. Yep. And these ones make it a little bit easier for you to use. So, let's try these scissors for now. So, you're going to hold them thumbs facing up. You've got your paper, and put it on the line, and cut. Slow and careful. Can you see that this hand of mine is staying very still. I'm going to go over to the end. Am I going to make it? Do you know what? My shoulders are really hurting, which means that I need to work on my shoulder strength a bit more. And done. Okay. You could also try drawing a line which is at a diagonal, or having it turn really sharply to give yourself more of a challenge. Right. Pause the video to try cutting all the way through the paper. The next activity, we're going to cut out a square. So, again, you're going to ask an adult to draw a square or a rectangle with some really thick lines. Remember, if you've already watched the video on using a ruler, this is a great time for you to practise that. Okay, so, when we do a square, we're going to have to cut into the paper to reach that shape, okay. So, there's our square. There are the scissors. So we have to cut, let's pretend we're doing it that way, into the paper first. Yeah, are you watching that? So we're going to cut into the paper, and there we go. Now you pause to try cutting out a square. There are different ways that we can make this activity easier or harder. So, remember, I said if your lines are thicker or thinner, it'll make it easier or harder. So a thick line means you're going to be more successful, and then you can gradually make that line thinner. If you have a long line, it's going to be much trickier than having to cut out a short little line. You can make it harder by having to change directions. So, for example, a zigzag line. You can also get left-handed scissors. And remember, I said we can get these scissors. So there are loads of different scissors that we can get to help you. And another way to work up on that strength is to try cutting some putty, for example. Remember: do the best for you. Practise, practise, practise. Thank you for listening, and if you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak. Bye.

Lesson summary: Straight cuts

In this lesson we will learn how to use both hands to snip and cut straight lines.

Straight cuts

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Lesson summary: Straight cuts

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