Cute Unicorn Craft for Fine Motor Scissor Skills

If you have a child that loves all things unicorns, then this unicorn craft is the way to go. It’s a craft that develops fine motor skills and scissor skills but has magical fun of unicorns! For more unicorn activities, try this Unicorn Yoga activity as well.

I love creating crafts for kids that serve a purpose.  There are a lot of anti-kids craft-ers out there, but as an Occupational Therapist, I am in the camp that kids crafts are GREAT for working on fine motor skills.  Direction following, task completion, fine motor work, and dexterity (among other goal areas) can all be addressed with a fun craft that kids will have fun making and be proud of! 

Unicorn craft for developing fine motor skills, eye hand coordination, scissor skills and other occupational therapy goal areas.

Unicorn Craft

(AND, the bonus to a purposeful craft is that it’s fun for the kids to make something that interests the child…whether it’s a specific animal, a favorite character, or a season…crafts build up a child with excitement and smiles.)


I do have to say, though that process-oriented arty creations are equally precious in child development and learning.  It’s all about balance! 


This super cute Unicorn craft is one that my kids loved making, and we worked on scissor skills and fine motor skills.  And they didn’t even know it!

 
Cute unicorn craft for kids that is great for fine motor skills and scissor skills.
 
 

How to make a Unicorn CraftFull disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

You’ll need these materials to make a Unicorn Craft:

  • White and Pink card stock
  • Paper
  • Pink card stock paper
  • Scissors (These are the brand I love best for kids and new scissor users.)
  • Hole punch
  • Yarn in different colors. We used pink, purple, white, and blue.
  • Small Googly eye
  • Glue
Cute unicorn craft for kids that is great for fine motor skills and scissor skills.

Directions to make this unicorn craft:

  1. First, you’ll need to cut the white card stock into several shapes: One large rectangle, three small rectangles, a square, and a triangle.  
  2. Cut the pink card stock into a wing shape.
  3. Cut the yarn into small pieces about 4 inches long.
  4. Once all of the shapes and yarn pieces are cut, glue the paper shapes together in a unicorn shape.  
  5. Use the hold punch to create holes along one of the small rectangles and on the corner of the large rectangle.
  6. Tie the yarn into the hole punch holes.  To do this, pinch the center of the yarn and push it into the hole.  Then, pull it halfway through the hole and slip the tail ends of the yarn into the loop.  Do this for the unicorn’s mane and tail.  
  7. Trim the unicorn’s hair and tail so the yarn is shorter and an even length.
Unicorn craft for kids to use in occupational therapy crafts.

Use this uncorn craft to build therapy skills

This unicorn craft is a great craft for occupational therapy sessions because it works on so many areas and skills:

  • Direction following and executive functioning skills
  • Visual motor skills (copying the shapes and placing them on the paper to make the unicorn)
  • Eye-hand coordination to cut along lines
  • Scissor skills and graded hand precision
  • Hand strength using a hole punch
  • Fine motor precision to thread string through the holes
  • Bilateral coordination to cut with scissors, use hole punch, and tying knots

Making this craft is a great way to work on and practice scissor skills including cutting multiple-angled shapes like rectangles, squares, and triangles.  I made an example of the unicorn craft and had my preschooler practice cutting on the lines.  

Cutting card stock is a great medium for younger kids because of the thicker paper and more resistance to the scissors during cutting.  This, along with a thick line like a crayon line provides an easier task for younger kids.  Thicker lines and paper provide a child with a graded down component to the craft and allow for more accuracy.  

Another way to make this activity easier or grade the craft is to provide help to a younger child who is completing this craft is to position the shape on the edge of the paper, so a rectangle would have only two cutting lines into the paper.  The child can then reposition the paper instead of cutting around a corner.

 

Kids can cut yarn in crafts to work on scissor skills.

Cutting the yarn is a great way to work on scissor skills: A child needs to hold the yarn with one hand and cut with the other, working on bilateral coordination skills.  A different medium like yarn or string is a fun way to encourage more scissor practice, including accuracy and precision of snips.

So, how can you encourage fine motor skills with this craft?  Simply by doing it!  It’s a powerhouse of fine motor work.  From cutting, snipping, hole punching, and threading the yarn through the holes, knotting the yarn, and gluing on the Googly eye: it’s a fine motor work out!

Use this unicorn craft in occupational therapy to work on a variety of goal areas with kids.
National Unicorn Day is April 9th.

National Unicorn Day is April 9th. Who knew?! If you have a kiddo that loves all things unicorns, it’s a great theme to use in therapy or in home activities to help kids develop fine motor skills, visual motor skills, motor planning, and all of the areas described above.



More easy and fun crafts for kids that you will love:

Scarecrow craft

Scarecrow Math Craft

 Germ Kids craft

Germ Craft

 Pirate Puppet

 Pirate Puppet

Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

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Unicorn craft

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