Click here to read Cute Apple Name Puzzle Works on Cutting Skills on Hands On As We Grow
We turned a pumpkin into an apple name puzzle!
Ever since I shared our pumpkin crafts with How Wee Learn’s pumpkin name puzzle, I’ve been wanting to try it out too!
These name puzzles are perfect for cutting practice, but are also great for name recognition! And bonus! It’s a cute craft too for the season!
This is the same concept, it’s just a red apple instead of an orange pumpkin!
And guess what!? Sarah of How Wee Learn has done these name puzzles in a variety of shapes for the different seasons. Check out her post of name puzzles for all the seasons.
Since it’s back to school time, I’m thinking apples!
And also this year, I get to partner up with Fiskars again, which is always a favorite of mine. I absolutely love their scissors and won’t use anything but Fiskars.
I can never have enough Fiskars scissors on hand, seriously, I like to have one for myself in about every drawer around the house (one next to my stove, in the junk drawer, in my office, in the garage, and I still want them handier)! Not to mention the kids’ scissors. I recommend the Fiskars Pointed-Tip Scissors, they’ve always been a fave. The blunt tip is good too for younger kids.
Create an Apple Name Puzzle
I grabbed one of my Fiskars scissors and cut an apple shape out of red cardstock, and a green leaf.
After that, I wrote Louis’ name across the apple and then drew lines to separate each of the letters.
Louis was not in the mood to cut anything. He thought the straight lines would be much too hard for him. He was convinced he couldn’t do it before he even started.
We actually didn’t come back to finish the apple name puzzle until the next day because of this. I wasn’t going to push him to the point of it being a fight. But the main strength of this activity is working on cutting skills (along with name recognition).
Louis has a thing with patterns all the time, taking turns. You brush my teeth today, tomorrow I’ll do it, and so on. You set out my clothes today, tomorrow I’ll do it. It goes back and forth, and this is a true pattern he does, in many things (and he sticks to it)!
So, when we came back to the puzzle, I made the first cut. We made a pattern to get him started.
Louis then cut along the next line with his Fiskars Pointed Tip Scissors to separate the next letter. And then I took a turn, and he took a turn. Getting back into the swing of things with his scissor skills.
Finally, when we were done cutting it apart, it was a puzzle!
He mixed them up and put them back together again by gluing them in place, topping it off with the green leaf.
Here’s a quick video of the process and what we did to make this apple name puzzle.
After the first time, Louis wanted to do it again, and this time he took more control of the process.
Child-led Apple Name Puzzle
He drew the apple on the red paper first and I cut it out (to make it look like an actual apple……. because it really, really didn’t).
Then Louis wrote his name across the apple.
I drew small lines, also in red so you could barely see it on the apple, as to where to write each letter. I did this to guide him so his name wouldn’t be scrunched together.
And then Louis made his own puzzle! He just started drawing lines!
They were curving all over to separate each letter of his name.
I extended the lines he drew so that the pieces cut through the apple.
It ended up being a very intricate puzzle! Thank goodness for the letters of his name to help him put it back together again!
This time, Louis was all over cutting the apple apart.
Even with curvy lines.
He took his time and followed along. I was quite proud that he held his Fiskars scissors the right way too! He’s getting the hang of this cutting thing.
Then…. the challenging part.
It was time to put this crazy puzzle back together again!
Have you seen our floor puzzle with blocks? It’s so easy!
He started with the ‘L’ and ‘O’, he knew where they went.
Well, he knew where all the letter went, but to match it up in the right way proved hard to do, especially since he got snip happy on the ‘I’ and we were missing a good chunk of the apple.
Let’s just call it a worm hole.
After a rocky start to this name puzzle craft, I think this apple turned out pretty cute!
And we got some serious cutting practice in (that’s been needed since he’s starting 4 year old preschool this week) and plus it was a great refresher to spelling (and writing) his name.
Be sure to stock up on the right scissors for your child’s age:
- Age 3+: Preschool Training Scissors
- Age 4+: Multiple different designs in both Blunt Tip or Pointed Tip Scissors (I prefer pointed)
- Age 12+: Larger size scissors but not full-on adult sized yet.
- Adult: Find the right pair for your project.
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