Easily Create Custom Pen and Paper Activities for Children
Use Free Clip Art
Essentially, we are going to use clip art that you may already have on your computer and then simply edit it using a graphics program such and Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro or similar (even the free one loaded with your computer will suffice) to create activities that will keep kids off the computer and out of your hair for a while! You only need basic knowledge of the program to do things such as copy, erase, fill (with colour) and add text.
Most Popular
The most popular children’s activities to create include: colouring pages, spot the difference, dot to dots, tracing numbers and simple maths puzzles. The best types of clipart pictures to use include those that feature animals, fruit, trees and flowers, dinosaurs and racing cars.
Starting Off
Firstly, find some suitable clipart – most computers will already have plenty included along with word processing or similar programs. Otherwise, check out free websites such as Microsoft Office Online. Most clip art is in colour so the first step is to remove the colour. Load the image into the graphics program. Now select the “fill tool” and choose white as the colour. Click the fill tool in each of the coloured areas – it should change to white. Eventually, you will have a black and white image. An alternative option with some programs is to convert them to black and white (make sure it is JUST black and white and not ‘greyscale’).
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Now we should have a black and white drawing. For colouring pages we’re done! Just print out the image to fit on a full sheet of paper and the kids can get started straight away. For other activities, just follow these steps:
Dot to Dots
Use the eraser tool to carefully remove part of the image – such as the tail of a lion or the outline of an apple. Now use the pen tool to place some dots roughly along the outline of the part you removed. Then use the text tool to put numbers next to the dots. The number of dots and complexity of the part you removed will vary depending on the age of the child. Tip: For a variation on this, if you have 26 dots or less, use letters of the alphabet instead of numbers.
Spot The Difference
Copy the image and then place the copies side by side. On one of the images, use the eraser tool to subtly remove 5 to 10 parts of the image – a couple of spots from a leopard, a few blades of grass from a scene etc.
Tracing Numbers
Starting with a blank image, use the text tool to draw a large number. Make sure the foreground colour is set to a medium grey, and the background colour is set to white to give an outline of the number rather than a solid one. Beneath this, use the text tool again, with a smaller font size, to write the name of the number. The idea is for the child to trace over the faint grey image and learn how to draw the number and how it spell it.
Simple Maths Puzzles
Make maths funs with animal pictures! Find some small clip art pictures of animals, such as pigs, cows and horses. Remove the colour as above and then paste the animals in groups into a blank image. Vary the number of animals in each group. Draw a hollow circle next to each group. The child has to count the animals in each group and write the number in the circle. They can also colour in the picture if they wish.
There are many more variations on the above, and if you are more experienced with editing graphicss you can create other activities such as mazes and more complicated maths puzzles and crosswords etc.
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