Jump to content
Home
Forum
Articles
About Us
Tapestry

Scissors Debate


 Share

Recommended Posts

I dont find theres a problem with scissors, but I did have one girl who caught her skin on the hole punch and one boy who put his finger in the pencil sharpener and twisted to see what would happen. Staplers are abit like a hole punch, keep fingers out of the way, hand flat on top.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Perhaps your nursery nurse needs a crash course in helping children to make their own envelope to put the snippings into! :o

 

Maz

 

Why have I not thought of that before...such a simple solution. Why are the simplest solutions the ones we never think of ourselves!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I also remove pencil sharpeners - my nephew aged about two or three decided to put his finger in where the pencil should go, and twist. It was agony - especially as the only way to remove his finger was to twist back round again. Ouch!

 

Maz

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

we are a setting aged 2 - 4 we have scissors available all the time in our writing area and carft area

we have never had an incident in the 3 1/2 years I have been supervisor

Pauline :o

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have always had scissors in reception and now in nursery. I have had hair cutting on several occasions - once with the same child twice cutting her own hair. Hair does grow back and the other children learn quickly never to do it after all the fuss! And the parents? Well after the event all you can do is apologise - and I never lose sleep over things I can't do anything about in hindsight!

 

There are different ways to help the children in settings. In one setting there was always an adult near the scissors. Now I don't feel the need with my current cohort as they have gained our trust and are very capable and engaged (3-4yrs).

 

I visited a Kindergarten in New Zealand that even trusted their mixed age children to use glue guns within continous provision. The children knew they had to ask an adult to supervise them but they still worked with little support and much guidance. The children who were new to the setting and perhaps didn't know were always reminded by another child who knew the rules! Very trusting and probably rewarding! :o

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well I'm very proud to say our scissors are now out in our continuous provision! In fact it wasn't even a conscious decision on our part. We currently have one of those Houdini children who gets to everywhere and everything when you least expect it. As a consequence we've had to remove all scissors from the place they were stored and now they are completely out of sight. Except for the five pairs in my pocket and the five pairs out of the table in the caft area which just seemed to appear! It was only days after my last post and I realised we were just doing cutting! With an odd eye on how it was progressing and a couple of very sensible children telling everyone else how to carry them and how to be careful. And suddenly our only rules with scissors are no running with them and keep them in the craft area. Staff are keeping me sane by periodically counting them to make sure none have gone wandering but otherwise I'm totally converted!

 

By the way I think five pairs is sufficient given the space in out craft area so I'm not being stingy!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well I'm very proud to say our scissors are now out in our continuous provision! In fact it wasn't even a conscious decision on our part. We currently have one of those Houdini children who gets to everywhere and everything when you least expect it. As a consequence we've had to remove all scissors from the place they were stored and now they are completely out of sight. Except for the five pairs in my pocket and the five pairs out of the table in the caft area which just seemed to appear! It was only days after my last post and I realised we were just doing cutting! With an odd eye on how it was progressing and a couple of very sensible children telling everyone else how to carry them and how to be careful. And suddenly our only rules with scissors are no running with them and keep them in the craft area. Staff are keeping me sane by periodically counting them to make sure none have gone wandering but otherwise I'm totally converted!

 

By the way I think five pairs is sufficient given the space in out craft area so I'm not being stingy!

 

This reminds me of a member of my staff that was so worried that she 'tied' a pair of sissors to each corner of the table to stop them 'wandering off' - the first thing the children did was cut the string!!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This reminds me of a member of my staff that was so worried that she 'tied' a pair of sissors to each corner of the table to stop them 'wandering off' - the first thing the children did was cut the string!!!!

[/quo

That made me smile!!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 8 months later...

I've just found this thread and read it with interest. I was always under the impression that children should have free access to scissors, as long as they're shown how to use them properly. I questioned that this morning however. A parent told me that her child had gone home yesterday with a chunk of his hair missing. I hadn't been aware of this, which I was very apologetic about (although I'm beginning to accept that me and my TA can't possibly see everything that's going on everywhere all the time!). The parent couldn't believe that her 3-year-old was using scissors without supervision. However, after reading through these posts, I stand by my decision to make the scissors readily available. I will talk to all the children again about how to use the scissors safely, and I will keep a much closer eye on the boy in question when he is at the creative table in future (!), but the scissors will be staying out on the shelf.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You can never second guess what they might do, whatever age they are - one of the staff's children who is now 6 cut her fringe quite short a couple of years ago - not content with that she did it again a couple of weeks ago because she wanted, she said to give her teddy extensions!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's a perfect case for a risk assessment.

 

What are the hazards involved? Do the scissors have rounded ends? Will the children have enough supervision to prevent them from running round with them? Do the potential benefits of having scissors available continuously outweight the risks of an occasional snip of hair?

 

I ten years of childminding I've always had scissors available and the only incident was my own daughter cutting the mane of a beautiful and ridiculously expensive rocking horse my aunt had bought with the intention of it being a family heirloom. It was much more upsetting than if it had been her own hair but I still don't regret my decision to have scissors freely available to all but the babies.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Scissors are available all the time in my R/Yr1 class..

 

8 years ago when teaching a year 2 class I was horrified to see a boy grasp his crotch and cut his trousers....this resulted in a diamond piece of fabric falling on the floor.I marched him off to the Ht's office and to my horror saw a long blonde lock of hair on his shoulder!!!(he was dark)the Ht and I quickly left him outside the office whilst we shrieked with laughter (behing closed door)..and gathered ourselves......when I explained to his mum she asked for the piece of fabric to repair them...no way would it fit back in place!!

 

 

Tinkerbell

 

Holding my sides with laughter, tinkerbell (because I have similar memories from yrs ago when scissors were a rare 'treat'. They've been out permanently for yrs now without incident (fingers are firmly crossed!))

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This reminds me of a member of my staff that was so worried that she 'tied' a pair of sissors to each corner of the table to stop them 'wandering off' - the first thing the children did was cut the string!!!!

 

Priceless!!! Children continually manage to out-think us at every stage don't they!

 

Can't believe how much I've laughed reading your posts (particularly as it has a serious side) but it's shown me the ingenuity little ones have.

 

We've found having a few pairs in different areas alleviated the need for walking around with them. 2's room has bluntish safety scissors out in the dough area to offer opportunity how to hold snip and more appropriate ones in the creative workshop.

 

We also have kitchen scissors so they can cut up toast (easier than knives) and they love this lots

 

I think by having them on offer alleviates the novelty value and as others have said, teaching them how to use them safely is they key. We've had more incidents with the wooden blocks as imaginations have grown and structures develop!

Edited by gingerbreadman
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. (Privacy Policy)