Saturday, November 2, 2013

Making Learning Fun

Before I put my son into Pre-K I was worried that he would be behind seeing as though he had only been in home childcare since he was born. One school we looked at gave me the impression that they would push him too fast and he wouldn't enjoy learning, luckily we found the right school for him and he loves going (once he's there). Since he's started school, my love for finding creative ways to teach him has also resurfaced and I've been making things at home to supplement what he's learning at school. 

My newest love is creating word trace sheets featuring his favorite characters, The Avengers, other Marvel heroes and Doc Mcstuffins. 

Once you get the hang out it, creating these only takes about 2-5 minutes and you can save them to do over and over agin.



Below is the step by step process for how I've made these tracing sheets:

Step 1 Do a Google image search for the character you want ex: "Hulk coloring pages"
Step 2 Copy the image and paste it on a word document
Step 3 Go to this free handwriting website and create the text you want to add. Print style works best for little kids who are learning how to write and the Paragraph Print Worksheet is best if you want to do the alphabet. 

Step 4 Hit print on the worksheet creator but don't print it. Take a screen shot of the text you created by pressing the Print Screen button on your key board.

Step 5 Go to your Paint Program, paste the image and then crop it so you just have the text. Select the portion of the image you want to add and hit COPY



Step 6 Go to the word document where you have the image of the character and PASTE the text.

Step 7 Right click on the text and select "in front of text" from the text wrap feature. Do the same for the image. This will allow you to position the two images anywhere on the page.


Step 8 Once you have everything where you want it, save and print.

You can make lots of different sheets using their favorite characters and the hand writing site. I've done a sheet with the alphabet, one with his name and one with the numbers 1-20.

We read each letter first and then he traces them. Once he's done the "work" portion he gets to color his character and he loves it.




Take a few minutes and make a few for your little one.