Thanksgiving Cutting Strips for Fine Motor Practice

by admin

If you want to add more fine motor ideas to your Thanksgiving activities for preschoolers and kindergarten kids, these Thanksgiving cutting strips are just what you need.

The Thanksgiving tracing pages are engaging for the children, and you can use them in so many different ways! On top of that, they’re super easy to prep and you can use materials you already have on-hand. That’s a win-win in my book.

So grab your own copy of the free printable fine motor strips at the bottom of this post. Then let your kids have fun as they strengthen their fine motor muscles this fall.

Cutting strips fanned out with text that reads thanksgiving cutting strips

Related: Free Preschool Printables

I love making simple printables like these for the kids. While fine motor activities abound in preschool and kindergarten, it’s still fun to shake things up a bit. Making themed tracing pages like these adds some whimsy to familiar tasks. Which often ups the engagement without taking the students too far out of their comfort zone.

Thanksgiving Cutting Strips

Below, you’ll find tips for prepping the cutting pages. I also share a variety of suggestions for using the tracing strips with your students.

Of course, you can come up with your own ways of incorporating the Thanksgiving fine motor strips into your classroom. Just be sure to share those ideas with me in the comments. I love finding out new ways to use the printables I make!

How to Prep the Thanksgiving Scissor Skills Printable

As I mentioned earlier, this fine motor activity is very low-prep! So you can have it ready to go for your students first thing tomorrow.

pile of thanksgiving cutting pages

First, go ahead and grab any materials you need to get the Thanksgiving cutting strips ready. Here’s what we used (I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post):

While you’re on the materials-gathering mission, pick up any supplies you’d like to use with the tracing strips once they’re prepped. Here are some ideas:

The sky’s the limit when it comes to the manipulatives, craft materials, and loose parts you can use in conjunction with the fine motor strips. I suggest using what you already have on-hand. Unless you’re looking for an excuse to go to the craft store. Then you definitely need to go to the craft store. 😉

Once your materials are ready, it’s time to prep the Thanksgiving cutting strips. Here’s what to do:

  • Get the free printable at the bottom of the post.
  • Save it to your computer.
  • Open it in the most up-to-date version of Adobe Reader.
  • Print out the fine motor strips you want to use.
  • Cut the strips apart. There are a total of 12 strips, 3 to a page.
  • Laminate or place them in dry erase pockets if desired.

And now you’re ready to share the Thanksgiving fine motor fun with your students!

Using the Thanksgiving Cutting Strips with Kids

I recommend introducing the tracing strips to your students in small groups. This gives you the chance to explain your expectations and model some ways for using the printable. Once the kids are pros at using the pre-writing pages, you can add them into your literacy center for independent practice.

Here are some ways you can use the tracing printables with your students:

  • Use them for scissor skills practice. Model how to use scissors and help your kids as needed with proper form.
child using scissors on thanksgiving cutting practice printable
  • Let the kids add stickers to non-laminated tracing strips. You can even have the kids cut along the stickers afterwards if they want.
  • Have the kids trace over the lines using dry erase markers (on the Thanksgiving cutting strips that are laminated or in dry erase pockets).
  • Encourage your students to use a variety of manipulatives and loose parts to trace over the lines from left to right.
preschooler using buttons to trace over line on thanksgiving tracing printable
  • Show the children how to roll out play dough snakes. Then have the kids use the play dough to trace over the lines on the strips.
  • Pair the Thanksgiving tracing strips with a simple sensory writing tray. Then see if the kids can use their fingers (or a feather!) to draw the patterns in the sensory material, using the strips as visual cues.
  • Leave some of the strips unlaminated. Let the kids use dot markers or crayons to trace over the lines.

Remember, these are just some ideas to get you started. You and your students might come up with even more ways to use these!

What are the Kids Learning with the Tracing Strips?

Keep in mind, I think the Thanksgiving cutting strips are just plain fun (at least the kids seem to enjoy them)! And I’m not opposed to fun or “just playing” one little bit. But young children are always (always!) learning, and so is the case with this tracing printable.

preschooler using dry erase marker to trace line on thanksgiving tracing printable

Here are some early learning concepts kids can explore while using the Thanksgiving tracing printable:

  • Fine motor skills
  • Left to right progression
  • Hand strengthening
  • Scissor skills
  • Pencil grip
  • Counting
  • Patterns

As you can see, a variety of early literacy and math skills are being practiced! Working those fine motor muscles helps kids get ready for writing, as does practicing pencil grip. Exploring left to right progression helps with both reading and writing.

When adding manipulatives and loose parts to the strips, many children add in some math practice on their own. They go back and count how many items each strip took. Or they make patterns with the manipulatives as they trace. Both of which are important early math skills for preschool and kindergarten!

Low-prep, easy-to-use, and full of math and literacy practice?! Not too shabby for some simple Thanksgiving cutting strips, right? Don’t forget to get your copy of the freebie at the bottom of this post.

More Thanksgiving Literacy Activities

Here are some more literacy-based Thanksgiving ideas to try with the kids this fall:

I think all of those activities complement the Thanksgiving cutting strips well!

Fall Fine Motor Tracing Strips Pack

Let Preschool Teacher 101 save you a ton of time planning for your preschool and kindergarten classes! We have hundreds of early childhood resources, from lesson plans to STEM challenges to dramatic play packs and so much more. Members of The Pack from Preschool Teacher 101, our membership site, gain access to our materials at an even steeper discount.

Click on the image below to get our fall pack of tracing and cutting strips. There are 84 strips to use this fall, each available in color and black-and-white.

fall theme tracing strips product cover

You can also find us on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Get the Free Printable Thanksgiving Cutting Strips

The tracing strips are available to members of Fun-A-Day’s free email community. If that’s you, please add your email to the form below to get the download link sent to your inbox. If you’re not a member yet, you can join by entering your information to the same form. Then you’ll receive the Thanksgiving cutting strips as a welcome gift.

If you can’t see the form above, you can open it in a new tab instead. Please be sure to read my printable FAQ if you run into any issues.

multiple views of cutting strips with text that reads free printable thanksgiving tracing strips

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