Home > Imaginative and Small World Play > Practising using a knife with play eggs and Tuesday Tots

Practising using a knife with play eggs and Tuesday Tots

A simple way to get toddlers using a knife today from us. I don’t know about anyone else but getting J to use a knife is a little scary for me – he has a respect for scissors “Scissors are sharp Mummy” is all I hear when we get them out – but knives are new to him – however as he gets more into the “I Do’s” he wants to take more control of his life and one of those things is with his meals so we need to work on using a knife.

Play dough hard boiled eggs for knife practice for toddlers

What you need for play dough hard boiled eggs and knife practice

Some white play dough
Some yellow play dough
Toddler or plastic knives
A surface safe for cutting on

How the fun happens with play dough hard boiled eggs and knife practice

I used some of my white homemade play dough that I made back in the winter and still going strong – with a small portion I coloured it yellow using food colouring and the rest I left white – you could easily use store brought play dough. To make the eggs I put a small ball of yellow in the middle of a large flat piece of white and then wrapped it around rolling it in my hands to an egg shape. (Next time I am putting them inside some plastic eggs that I’ve brought today and also in an egg box for J or even using an egg cup with him to add a little element of role play).

play dough hard boiled eggs
A play dough hard boiled egg with the shell removed

Because J had no idea what to do with the “eggs” I modelled with one using his toddler knife and our small plastic play dough knife cutting it up to reveal the yellow yolk in the middle.

Knife pratice with playdough hard boiled eggs
J using the plastic knife to cut his hard-boiled eggs

Because the knives are blunt and toddler hand size they are perfect for toddlers to practice on – it was great to see him initially use a sawing motion, and give up and pull them apart – yes the first few times that really happened but the more he played the better he got – we’re working on it and it’s doing something that he really enjoys which is great.

Welcome back to Tuesday Tots

Tuesday Tots Link PartyIt’s another Tuesday which means another Tuesday Tots (do the weeks seem to be going really quickly for anyone else) and this week I’m featuring Sun Hats and Wellie Boots Stars and Stripes Soap – I’ve got a soap making kit and being meaning to experiment with it further than what it says on the instructions and this may just be the inspiration I need.

15 Comments

  1. We’ve been working at cutting, too, with bananas and string cheese and a butter knife. Priscilla feels so proud of herself when she does it. I love the “hard boiled eggs!”

    1. Ohhhh bananas would be a good idea to practice with as well – we don’t have string cheese and I’m the only one that eats cheese in the house!

  2. What an adorable egg idea and great use for practicing cutting skills. We spend a lot of time talking about knife safety with our Little Hands that Cook with Books lessons. They have all become very good at cutting.

    1. I was contemplating getting a knife specially for J to use for cooking but I’ve decided instead we will use scissors for the time being as for most things they will work

  3. pringles mummy says:

    Wow what a great idea! will be buying some flour and yellow food colouring to make playdough and do this with pringle

    1. Have fun it’s great activity although our hard boil eggs are now more of one colour we are still cutting them up

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