Okay, I admit, I’m absolutely in love with this Parting the Red Sea Snipping Practice and was so thrilled my preschooler loved it too! The set up was fast and simple, the snipping was perfect for a quick practice and further development of his cutting skills, and he absolutely loved the surprise at the end!
What You’ll Need
- Piece of cardboard
- Exacto knife
- 2 sheets blue construction paper
- Scissors
- Glue
- Popsicle stick
- White paper
- Pen
- Child scissors
Putting It Together
- Make a vertical cut with your exacto knife down the middle of your piece of cardboard, leaving about an inch of space at the top and bottom (don’t cut all the way from top to bottom!).
- Make small horizontal cuts at the top and bottom.
- Cut your blue construction paper in half vertically. We used two layers of blue paper in different shades.
- Cut horizontal lines about an inch or so apart from the top to the bottom of each half. Do not cut all the way across; leave about an inch border on the inside.
- Glue the first layer on either side so that the border (the non cut side) is about a half inch from the exacto knife cut in the cardboard. The blue paper should be glued vertically with the cut strips fanning horizontally.
- Glue the second layer on either side about a half inch in from the first layer so they overlap.
- Bend the cut strips of the second layer in towards the middle so they criss cross and overlap all the way up the cardboard piece, covering the cardboard below and the cut down it.
- Use a pencil to curl the first layer (the outer layer) of the blue paper so it looks like waves curling up.
- Cut a circle or rectangle from your white paper.
- Draw Israelites on the paper and glue it to your glue stick.
- Stick your Israelites into the top horizontal slit.
- Place the cutting practice on a hard surface, preferably a child sized table.
- Invite your child to snip down the middle of the second layer of blue paper, the overlapping parts, to reveal what’s underneath—the “sand” once the Red Sea parted! They will have to make multiple snips on each strip to reveal that chunk of cardboard.
- Once the path has been revealed, encourage your child to walk the Israelites across the parted Red Sea by moving the Popsicle stick down the slit.
- Pair this activity with your favorite Passover story book, the River Ride guide from PJ Library or the relevant cards from our Passover Story Sequencing set.
Finished & Loving It!
Like I said, we all LOVED this activity! I was surprised how quickly it went together. The longest part was folding and curling the strips. But all in all, it probably took 5 minutes to set up.
Snipping practice is so great as an early practice to get kids used to using scissors and find success in cutting. It is also a great activity for continuing to practice in short bursts, especially with reluctant cutters who just aren’t that interested in longer cutting activities.
This particular activity, with its surprise revealed once the snipping finishes, is such a great reward! My preschooler loved discovering the path underneath the “water” and was so surprised to see that the Israelites actually moved down the revealed path!! If you want to see the crossing in action, check out our reel on Instagram!
We paired this activity with a short review from the PJ Library River Ride guide and the relevant cards from our Passover Story Sequencing set. These cards have worked so well to break down the story into these smaller parts that we can then explore more deeply in fun activities like this.
I absolutely loved how this was such a meaningful learning experience, and helped my guy practice his snipping skills. He was so proud of himself and so excited to see the Jews cross the Sea! Such a fun, impactful activity!
We have a whole page dedicated to Passover, our Passover Hub. Check it out! It will include some of the Passover activities we do this year, as well as the activities we’ve done in previous years.
And don’t forget our Passover Activity Bundle, full of fun learning experiences for the holiday!
Check out our recommended Passover books from our Bookshop.org Shop!
The following sites are amazing resources for learning more about this beautiful holiday:
Chag Sameach!!
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