We’ve been trying out a really fun Fine Motor Activity this week: Paper Weaving*. It’s such a versatile kids craft that can be done by itself or used to make cards or pictures. We made a dinosaur card, but you could use it to make any card by using the same technique and just changing the cut out. (Have a look here for more dinosaur activities)

What are the benefits of paper weaving for young children?

Paper weaving can be a little bit fiddly for little fingers and therefore (as long as they don’t find it too difficult that it becomes off putting) is brilliant at developing their fine motor skills. These are the skills that, through building up the tiny muscles in the hands and fingers, enable children to carry out important tasks such as learning to write, use utensils and do up buttons! Find out more about Fine Motor Skills here and the best resources and activities for developing fine motor skills here .

What do you need?

• To simply have a go at paper weaving, all a child needs is two different colours of paper or card and some scissors (or if you’d prefer them not to use scissors, you could pre cut the strips of paper yourselves. If you would like them to be exactly the same width then a ruler might be advisable.
• If you want to make the card as pictured, in addition to the two different colours of paper you will also need

Card

Glue

Pen

Scissors

How do you do it?

• Using one sheet of coloured paper cut 2cm wide strips.

• Cut the other piece into a square, (around 10cmx 10cm) and then 2cm down the square, cut along leaving a 2cm margin at the end of the paper. Do the same again 2cm further down and repeat until you have a square with 5 strips of paper held together by the margin.

• Get the child to thread the strips of coloured paper into the square, pushing the first piece against the margin. To thread they need to go over and under the paper alternatively.

• Repeat with more strips of paper until complete.

• Trim to a square

• Sellotape in place

To make the card you then need to

• Fold the sheet of card in half
• Draw on the front cover the outline/stencil of the image you’d like. We chose a dinosaur

• Cut out the image then sellotape or glue the paper weaving behind it.

• Add details to the image.

*Please note, as with any activity on this site, we accept no responsibility for the safety of the activity and it is your role to risk assess the activity based on your understanding of the children/adults you are working with.