I have been loving our eat-a-rainbow activities! So has my 3-year-old granddaughter, Zoey. I think these new eat-a-rainbow cutting strips are one of my favorite free printables. They encourage healthy eating while giving toddlers and preschoolers a way to work on their scissor cutting skills. There’s even an advanced cutting activity included for preschoolers who are ready for that skill level.
Montessori-Inspired Printables at Living Montessori Now
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links (at no cost to you).
My daughter, Christina (a former Montessori child), and I are partnering to bring you a series of Montessori-inspired printables. (Note: Christina has some sweet themed kids’ fitness printables that are great for homes or classrooms!)
The printables are typically themed and use a number of Montessori principles (although you don’t need to be a Montessori teacher or homeschooler to use them). The cutting strips use photographs or realistic images to emphasize reality.
Preschoolers love to learn proper terminology, so I typically tell you the name of the objects or animals featured whenever I can.
Free Eat-a-Rainbow Cutting Strips
To download, click here and then click on the file image in the upper right corner of the PDF to save to your computer (just choose where you want it saved).
Montessori-Inspired Activities Using the Eat-a-Rainbow Cutting Strips
Eat-a-Rainbow Cutting Strips with Basket
Cutting skills are so important for preschoolers. Two year olds can begin working on them, too. When children are first working on cutting skills, they’ll have an easier time cutting cardstock than paper. So, in the beginning, I recommend printing the strips on cardstock. Printer paper is fine for children with more advanced cutting skills.
But even before using cutting strips, I recommend using an easier object to cut, such as strings of beads. You’ll find lots of tips and ideas for teaching scissor skills in my post on developing scissor cutting skills with Montessori-inspired activities.
Basket with Eat-a-Rainbow Cutting Strips
I’m not sure where I got this basket, although the small Multicraft tray would work, too. I’ve always used Fiskar scissors for kids, which are sharp enough to cut paper easily.
For home use, I like to have a small container to catch the paper scraps. I used a small wooden box we had, although you could use any small container. For younger children, I recommend keeping the basket or tray up out of reach when it’s not being used.
For classroom use, you might want to use Ziplock bags to catch the scraps. Children have fun taking their scraps home in a bag … or saving them to paste onto a collage.
Toddlers and preschoolers can simply cut the thick white lines. Preschoolers with advanced cutting skills can also cut the small white lines separating the fruits and vegetables in the rainbow food collage.
More Montessori-Inspired Paper Cutting Activities
You’ll find ideas for home and classroom setups in my post on Montessori-inspired paper cutting activities.
These free lamb cutting strips are great for a March, farm, or “Mary Had a Little Lamb” theme.
These free penguin cutting strips are perfect for a penguin- or Antarctica unit.
Free Arctic Animal Cutting Strips
These cutting strips focus on animals from the Arctic rather than Antarctica and other parts of the Southern Hemisphere.
Here are some free cutting strips for a holiday bell theme.
These free dinosaur cutting strips are perfect for a dinosaur theme. They include two dinosaurs and their skeletons.
These free spiderweb cutting strips are perfect for a spider unit or Halloween. Because of the beauty of the spiderwebs, they’re also great for children who are afraid of spiders.
These free raccoon cutting strips can be used for a forest unit at any time or a Kissing Hand unit at the beginning of the school year.
Many young children either love ants or are frightened of them. These free ant cutting strips can be helpful and high interest in either instance.
Snails are fascinating creatures for many young children, and I have a post with free snail cutting strips.
Cars are a popular topic with many young children … and I have a post with free car cutting strips.
I have a post with free recycling cutting strips … a great way to focus interest on recycling!
I have a post with free butterfly cutting strips … perfect for spring and summer activities!
I also have a post with free frog cutting strips.
My granddaughter loves using the cutting strips to develop her scissor cutting skills. I hope your child (or students) enjoys using the cutting strips, too. 🙂
More Eat-a-Rainbow Posts
Free Eat-a-Rainbow Printables and Montessori-Inspired Activities
You’ll find lots of healthy food recipes and food preparation activities in my kids in the kitchen category.
Montessori Monday Link-Up
Except for content, this is a no-rules linky. If you have some Montessori-inspired activity trays/lessons to share, please link up below. They can be for home or classroom. It’s fine to link up a post from your archives – and you may link up anytime during the week! Your post may be any Montessori-inspired activity or idea. It doesn’t need to be related to my Montessori Monday post.
If you’re wondering what’s considered “Montessori inspired” and what to link up (or not link up), check out my “What Is Montessori Inspired?” post. Link up your exact post URL so that we can find your activity if we return to the linky at a later date. Don’t link to giveaway posts (unless the giveaway is only part of a Montessori-inspired post). Giveaways in general should go on my giveaway linky. Also, don’t link directly to products. You can link up a review of a Montessori product or activity post related to a Montessori product.
I publish the Montessori Monday post and linky each Monday morning and keep the linky open throughout the week. I do a lot of sharing on the Living Montessori Now Facebook page from the Montessori Monday link-up. Thanks for participating!
Notes: For community discussions, please join us at the Living Montessori Now Facebook page. And don’t forget the Saturday/Sunday weekend sharing days where you may share a kid-related activity of any kind at the Living Montessori Now Facebook page!
It’s also Motivational Monday on Mondays! I invite you to share something positive on the Bits of Positivity Facebook page (Bits of Positivity is my other blog) to help us all get a good start on the work/school week. You might share an inspirational or motivational quote, positive graphic, or post about finding balance or simplifying your life. Or you might share a post on organizing, an encouraging post, a post about making a difference in the world, or a positive parenting post. Just go ahead and share on the Bits of Positivity wall any time today! (Please “like” the Bits of Positivity Facebook page if you haven’t already.) I’ll be pinning a number of ideas to my regular Pinterest boards.
If you have a giveaway on your blog, please add it to my Family-Friendly Giveaway Linky Page! If you enjoy entering giveaways, you’ll always find lots of great giveaways there.
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Learn more about my eBook Montessori at Home or School: How to. Teach Grace and Courtesy! I’m also one of the coauthors of the book Learn with Play – 150+ Activities for Year-round Fun & Learning!The Montessori at Home! eBook and Montessori at Home! eBook and Materials Bundle are AMAZING resources! You can learn more about them here. Buy them in the Living Montessori Now shop.
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May be linked to Practical Mondays Link Up, LouLou Girls, Hip Homeschool Hop, Tasty Tuesdays, A Little Bird Told Me Linky Party, Link-ups at Squishable Baby, Preschool Corner, Sharing Saturday, Tot School Gathering Place
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Montessori-Inspired Food Preparation for Preschoolers
These cutting strips are so fun! Thanks for sharing them
Thank you so very much! I know someone who loves colors and practicing with scissors. This is so nice of you! Pinned and tweeted.
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