Abandon the Scissors, Let’s Go Toddler-Style. Students tapped into their toddler selves and revelled in the simple joy of tearing paper. We precut construction paper into long strips and gave the students simple, open-ended instructions to tear the strips into smaller pieces — any size or shape of their choosing. Young children find that tearing paper is fun and satisfying because paper crinkles and makes noise when torn, and they have the power to change the shape of the paper. The act is deceptively simple though. Tearing paper requires finger and coordination skills. You must hold the paper between the thumb and pointer finger of each hand, then move each hand in the opposite direction. Many children initially attempted to pinch the paper strip together in the middle proceed to pull the two ends outward in opposite directions. After a mini lesson in paper tearing, they all became highly proficient with the skill.