I love butterfly activities in the spring and summer! I’m excited to share a second cutting strips printable … free Montessori-inspired butterfly cutting strips! The cutting strips are an instant download and super easy to download and prepare!
Montessori-Inspired Printables at Living Montessori Now
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 spring- and summer-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’ll tell you the name of the animals or objects featured whenever I can. In the credit page of this printable, you’ll see the names of the four different butterflies, which you can teach to your child or students.
Free Butterfly 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 Butterfly Cutting Strips
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links (at no cost to you).
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 Butterfly 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 soapstone jewelry 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. You’ll find ideas for classroom setups in my post on Montessori-inspired paper cutting activities.
Free Frog Cutting Strips
I also have a post with free frog cutting strips, which work well for other spring activities!
More Free Butterfly Printables from Living Montessori Now
Find more free butterfly printables in this post: Free Butterfly Printables and Montessori-Inspired Butterfly Letter Activities.
For Montessori-inspired caterpillar and butterflies activities, check out my roundup post for a Montessori-inspired caterpillar-butterfly unit.
And don’t miss our subscriber freebie butterfly pack! You’ll get a monthly freebie (and previous monthly freebies) with link and password if you subscribe to the Living Montessori Now weekly newsletter!
Montessori Monday Link-Up
If you have some Montessori activity trays/lessons to share, please link up below. 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 (which I often do when I’m looking for activities for a roundup post). 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. Please place the Montessori Monday button (using the code from the right sidebar) in your post or put a link back to this post. 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.
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!
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May be linked to Practical Mondays Link Up, Afterschool Express, Thoughtful Spot, Hip Homeschool Hop, The Mommy Club Resources and Solutions, A Little Bird Told Me Linky Party,Learn and Play, Link-ups at Squishable Baby, Preschool Corner, Sharing Saturday, Tot School Gathering Place.
Thank you so much for hosting, and for sharing this great resource! We always do a butterfly unit this time of year as we prepare to visit the largest mobile butterfly exhibit in the country, these cutting strips will be perfect to add to it. Pinned over to my Montessori Pinterest board. Have a blessed week!!
My daughter is going to love this! Thank you for stopping by the Learn & Play Link Up! This post is featured on Christian Montessori Network this week.