THIS PATTERN PACKET INCLUDES:

1. Step-by-step directions can be used by the teacher, independently by a student, or one-on-one with a teacher’s aide or tutor.
   
   
2. Step-by-step illustrated directions help reinforce the oral directions or demonstration given by the teacher. Visual learners often refer to these directions as they are completing their projects.
   
   
3. Tracer patterns can be copied onto card stock. Your students can share the patterns with their classmates and also work on their tracing skills. Equipping a learning center with several sets of patterns as well as directions permits the students to work independently on their cut-and-glue project. Tracers can be stored in sets held together with a paper clip, placed inside a plastic page protector, and kept in a notebook.
   
   
4. Timesaver patterns can be copied directly onto the colored construction paper. You can cut them apart and pass out the pieces to the students to complete the finished cutting and assembling. This technique is especially helpful if you are short on time or working with younger children.

BENEFITS OF USING CUT-AND-PASTE ART PROJECTS

• Cut-and-paste art projects help develop fine motor skills
• Cut-and-paste art projects help develop scissor and gluing skills
• Children learn how to follow both oral, written and visual directions
• Cut-and-paste art projects help develop geometry and spatial relationships
  Using and manipulating shapes, positional words: behind, in front, under, on top, etc.
  
  

  Information from the University of Chicago states that boys begin out-performing girls by age 4 1/2 and the gap continues to widen through adolescence. We need to shorten that gap with activities like cut-and-paste art projects because, “Greater demands on spatial skills are made by various technical tasks that are pervasive in a complex society, such as interpretation of graphs, maps, architectural drawings, and x-rays.” (Janellen Huttenlocher, professor of psychology at the University of Chicago)

  
  
• Cut-and-paste art projects give younger children experience with counting and color idenfication

HOW TO USE CUT-AND-PASTE ART PROJECTS IN ALL AREAS OF YOUR CURRICULUM

1. Language arts
   Reinforce spatial vocabulary/positional words
   Write a story or poem to augment a particular cut and paste project
   Sequencing skills – Glue this on first…etc.
   Listening skills and following directions
   Use as a follow-up to a book
   
   
2. Math
   Shapes
   Spatial relationships
   Symmetry – Butterfly cut and paste
   
   
3. Social Studies & Science
   Use cut-and-paste projects to supplement thematic units:
   Community workers: a cut-and-paste dump truck
   Dinosaurs: a cut-and-paste dinosaur
   Insects: a cut-and-paste grasshopper
   Holidays
   
   
4. Decorate
   Hang projects from the ceiling, on the bulletin board/wall, or in the hall. This brings in lots of complements from parents, principals and
   fellow teachers.