Cutting Skills – Silly Pet Salon for Strong Hand Muscles

pet salon cutting skills for kids strengthen hand muscles

Strengthen cutting skills while giving your kids their dream “job” with this fun pet salon activity! Best part? It’s made up of recyclables! This activity may take a little time to set up, but once done, you can use it over and over again!

Creative Ways to Explore Cutting Skills

When my oldest was struggling with his fine motor skills, I knew that working on his scissor skills would help him get on the right track. But handing him scissors and a paper wasn’t going to do the trick!

He needed to be engaged, and so I found creative ways for him to explore cutting skills. I found that he had the strongest connection to activities that had a specific purpose and result – like grooming his “dog” or cutting spoon people’s hair!

Skills: Fine Motor Skills

Ages: 2 Years +

Prep Time: 20 Minutes

Where Imaginative Play and Cutting Skills Collide

This cutting activity is a great way to show kids how fast and straightforward it can be to upcycle items that you have sitting around the house. It is amazing how everyday objects can create something unique and inspire such amazing imaginative play.

All activities should be supervised by an adult. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This post may contain affiliate links.

Where Imaginative Play and Cutting Skills Collide

This cutting activity is a great way to show kids how fast and straightforward it can be to upcycle items that you have sitting around the house. It is amazing how everyday objects can create something unique and inspire such amazing imaginative play.

All activities should be supervised by an adult. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This post may contain affiliate links.

Tips for Setting Up This Activity

Use what you have! An egg carton, tin can, cardboard, and paper tubes were all we needed, but feel free to mix this up based on what you have and what type of pet you want to recreate!

Quick Adhesives. Use tape and hot glue to put everything together quickly!

Type of Paint. The coloring process was quick for us as I used a white spray paint that took minutes to spray and dry. However, there is no need to rush the process especially if you are crafting together – be creative and as colorful as you’d like using acrylic paint!

Type of Fur. We used yarn. It was the perfect texture and not too tough for the kids to cut through!

How to Reuse. Don’t toss your cardboard pet away when your kiddos are finished grooming! All you have to do is hot glue on more yarn and they can work on their cutting skills over and over again!

Materials

Tin Can
Egg Carton
Toilet Paper Tubes
Cardboard
Heavy Duty Tape

Tin Can
Egg Carton
Toilet Paper Tubes
Cardboard
Heavy Duty Tape
Spray Paint or Acrylic Paint
Yarn
Hot Glue
Googly Eyes
Kid-Safe or Toddler-Safe Scissors

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1

Start by taping or gluing together the parts of the body. Attach the tin can to the egg carton body and then attach to the toilet paper tube legs.

Step 2

Once all the pieces are attached, the kids can paint in whatever color they want. Alternatively, an adult can spray paint outside.

Step 3

After the paint dries, attach the googly eyes and the yarn with hot glue.

Step 4

Let the kids cut the different lengths of hair to give the dog a haircut!

Step 1

Start by taping or gluing together the parts of the body. Attach the tin can to the egg carton body and then attach to the toilet paper tube legs.

Step 2

Once all the pieces are attached, the kids can paint in whatever color they want. Alternatively, an adult can spray paint outside.

Step 3

After the paint dries, attach the googly eyes and the yarn with hot glue.

Step 4

Let the kids cut the different lengths of hair to give the dog a haircut!

scissor skill printable fun haircut worksheet for preschoolers and toddlers learning how to cut and strengthen fine motor skills

FREE Printable Cutting Skills Activities

Grown ups are busy, I get it! That’s why I created a bunch of different FREE printable cutting worksheets.

If your kiddo loves this pet salon idea, you have to try our Spoon Salon activity!

We also have a very fun vertical cutting skills activity that will get kids on their feet and having fun with scissor skills!

If your little one is still learning how to hold the scissors in the right way, try our Cutting with Cars activity which encourages thumbs up!

For more printable activities, visit our Printable Shop. It is filled with easy to set-up activities that help strengthen early childhood education skills!

The Educational Benefits of the Pet Salon

There are a lot of great benefits to this silly grooming activity. This is the perfect kind of imaginative play that gives them independence while also boosting their confidence. Since they can help create this activity from start to finish, there’s no limit on how many times they can play with it again and again.

This cutting activity is also great for muscle building and hand muscle control too. This helps them get more strength in their hands and gives them the ability to have more control of their fine motor skills, too.

This can also be used as a fun activity to talk about the length of hair and comparing long, medium, and short.

This activity is building on such an essential practical life skill – cutting! It is a skill they will learn now and use the rest of their lives! For more fine motor skills activites visit our comprehensive list of play ideas!

The Educational Benefits of the Pet Salon

There are a lot of great benefits to this silly grooming activity. This is the perfect kind of imaginative play that gives them independence while also boosting their confidence. Since they can help create this activity from start to finish, there’s no limit on how many times they can play with it again and again.

This cutting activity is also great for muscle building and hand muscle control too. This helps them get more strength in their hands and gives them the ability to have more control of their fine motor skills, too.

This can also be used as a fun activity to talk about the length of hair and comparing long and short.

This activity is building on such an essential practical life skill – cutting! It is a skill they will learn now and use the rest of their lives! For more fine motor skills activites visit our comprehensive list of play ideas!