Trace the Picture: Look at the Animal, Then Trace It

Each row of this page has two halves. On the left a small finished drawing sits in a picture frame with an eye badge on top: a penguin in the first row, a kangaroo in the second. On the right, after an arrow, the same animal is drawn large in thick dashes, waiting to be traced. The model is solid and framed, so it is clear which picture is for looking and which one is for the crayon, and the dashed copy is the same drawing facing the same way.

Looking at a model and then making your own copy is the next step after tracing alone, and young children need to practice both parts. The eye badge invites a moment of looking: where are the penguin's wings, how long are the kangaroo's ears? Then the child traces the big copy, starting at the dot on top of the head. Because the copy matches the model line for line, the child can check the finished tracing against the model and see that it is the same animal. Small parts such as eyelashes stay solid so the lines left to trace are long enough for small hands.

The page prints as a PDF and suits preschool and the start of kindergarten. Use it after the first big whale page and before pages with several pictures. Children who enjoy it can go on to the other-half page, where they finish the missing half of a butterfly, an owl, a trophy and a teddy bear. Picture tracing follows the outline of whole pictures; abstract line practice, step-by-step drawing and numbered dot-to-dot have their own pages.