Whether Jack Frost is nipping at your nose or not, making paper snowflakes is a great activity to do with your children, whatever the weather! It’s low-cost, creative, and gets the whole family involved. Batter yet, once done, they make for the perfect winter decorations.
Making paper snowflakes is a great way to help your children practice their cutting with scissors skills.
However, as cutting snowflakes can be a delicate task, some children may get frustrated if their snowflake falls apart in their hands when opened to reveal their design.
To prevent this from happening, we have created a simple step-by-step guide to help your children make the most beautiful snowflakes. You’ll have a flurry of snowflakes around your home in no time!
Once your children get the hang of making simple snowflakes, the snowflake design possibilities are endless from there.
What You Will Need
- Scissors – To cut your paper snowflake.
- Pencil – To draw out your snowflake design.
- 8.5-by-12-inch paper – This is what you’ll use to create your snowflake.
How To Make Paper Snowflakes
With any art and crafts project, the most important thing to remember is safety first. Therefore, if your child is cutting with scissors, make sure to keep an eye on them or even help them out if they’re too young.
The last thing any parent wants is for the child to get injured!
Step 1 – Fold Your Paper
If you’re struggling to get the perfect square, the easiest method to achieve this is by folding one corner of the paper to the opposite edge. This should create a triangle and a long rectangle.
Then, fold the rectangle inwards, towards the triangle, to create a crease line along the side of the rectangle.
Step 2 – Cut The Rectangle
Next, open up your triangle so it is laid out flat on your surface. You should notice a distinct crease where the side rectangle meets the square.
Then, cut off the rectangle (you may need a parent’s help for this bit). This should leave you with a perfect square to start making your paper snowflakes.
Step 3 – Fold Again
Like before, fold your paper diagonally to create a triangle. Once you have one big triangle, fold it in half again to create a smaller triangle.
Step 4 – Fold In Thirds
The next step is to fold your triangle into thirds. When doing this, make sure to carefully line up the left and right sides of the paper together; so it is nice and neat.
Once completed, trim off the bottom sides by snipping along the horizontal lines.
Step 5 – Get Creative
With the paper triangle still folded (you may want to press it down with something hard, like a book, to help prevent it from opening), you can now start designing your snowflake.
Take your pencil and draw whatever design you want – you can make this as simple or intricate as you wish.
You could even experiment with different shapes, styles, and sizes to create a variety of different snowflake designs. Just remember to have fun!
Step 6 – Cut Out Your Design
Following along with the pattern you created, cut out your design carefully. Once again, you may need a parent’s or adult’s help to do this.
One thing to note, when cutting your design, is to make sure not to cut all the folded edges. Leave some folded edges intact; to prevent your snowflake from falling apart.
Step 7 – The Reveal
Once you have finished following all the previous steps, you can now carefully open up your snowflake design. This should reveal a beautiful paper snowflake. And that’s all there is to make a snowflake out of paper!
You can now use them to decorate your house. Whether you are hanging your snowflakes in a window, attaching them to holiday gifts, or simply making them for friends and family.
Whatever you do with your snowflakes, they will bring a festive cheer to a home.
Why Some Kids May Find Cutting Snowflakes Difficult
If your child is struggling to make a snowflake out of paper, there’s no need to worry! All it takes is a bit of practice.
Like trying most new things, whether this is sports, an instrument, or drawing, it is unlikely you’ll master it the first time you try. It takes patience and a lot of practice.
Sometimes, folding the snowflake can be hard to understand, and then cutting out your design needs precision to prevent it from falling apart.
The best thing to do is start simple, and then before you know it, you’ll be making paper snowflakes left, right, and center.
How To Help Kids Learn To Cut Snowflakes
Below, you will find two tips to help your child learn how to cut snowflakes out of paper easily.
- Make It Simple – As previously mentioned: the simpler you make it, the easier it will be to cut out. Once you have finished folding your triangle into thirds, draw a simple design that is easy to cut out, avoiding any small, intricate designs that make cutting out harder.
- Use A Pattern Or Template – You can help show your child how to draw an easy design before they create one themselves. Likewise, there are a variety of print-off snowflake templates that are great for beginners. All you have to do is cut out the printed design, which is clear and easy to see, and you have yourself a paper snowflake!
Final Thoughts
Paper snowflakes are a great activity for your child during the winter months when it is too cold to play outside. Although, they also make a great year-round activity.
Not only are they a great, creative way of decorating your home for the holidays, but they also help your child improve their cutting skills and creativeness.
Hopefully, this guide has provided you with everything you need to make your own paper snowflake for kids.
