Summer Picture Tracing: Trace the Waves Across the Sea

The page is a postcard from the seaside, with a double border and a stamp showing an anchor in the top corner. A sun shines over the sea, and a straight horizon runs across the page behind the boat. Below it two long waves roll across the whole width, and a sailboat floats on the first wave. On the beach there is a parasol, a bucket with a spade, a sandcastle with flags and a crab. Everything except the postcard frame, the stamp and the sun's short rays is dashed.

The long lines are the heart of this page. Tracing a line all the way from the left edge to the right edge, without stopping, is the same movement as writing along a line of text, and it asks the hand to cross the middle of the body, which young children find harder than it looks. The horizon is straight and the waves go up and down evenly, so the child practices both kinds of long line. After the sea comes the fun part: the beach pictures, each one closed and ready to color.

This printable PDF suits kindergarten and is a cheerful page for the end of the school year or a summer holiday at home. It sits after the Christmas page in the set and before the big, middle and small page. Picture tracing follows the outline of whole pictures; abstract line practice, step-by-step drawing and numbered dot-to-dot have their own pages.