Uploaded September 2025 | Updated September 2026, 41 minutes ago
Should toddlers do cutting and pasting crafts, or is scribbling better for 2–4 year olds?
It may look simple to us — cut a triangle and a circle, paste them together, and there you have Santa Claus! But for children between two and four years old, such activities are not as easy as they seem.
Through our 7 years of experience in art-integrated learning, working with more than 1,900 children across 30 government schools, we at Shuru Art Foundation have found that activities like cutting, folding, and pasting can actually hurt a child’s confidence if they are developmentally too advanced.
According to the NCERT Training Package for Primary Teachers, the best exercise for this age group is scribbling. It builds motor skills and hand-eye coordination, which later support writing and other learning skills.
That’s why we recommend that children between 2–4 years should only be given age-appropriate creative activities that match their abilities.
Subscribe to Shuru Art Foundation for more research-backed insights on children’s education, art-integrated learning, and child development.
Should toddlers do cutting and pasting crafts, or is scribbling better for 2–4 year olds?
It may look simple to us — cut a triangle and a circle, paste them together, and there you have Santa Claus! But for children between two and four years old, such activities are not as easy as they seem.
Through our 7 years of experience in art-integrated learning, working with more than 1,900 children across 30 government schools, we at Shuru Art Foundation have found that activities like cutting, folding, and pasting can actually hurt a child’s confidence if they are developmentally too advanced.
According to the NCERT Training Package for Primary Teachers, the best exercise for this age group is scribbling. It builds motor skills and hand-eye coordination, which later support writing and other learning skills.
That’s why we recommend that children between 2–4 years should only be given age-appropriate creative activities that match their abilities.
Subscribe to Shuru Art Foundation for more research-backed insights on children’s education, art-integrated learning, and child development.
