Trace the Picture, Then Draw: What Is the Tractor Carrying?

A tractor drives along a country road, pulling a trailer, and the trailer is empty. Behind the road gentle hills roll across the page under a sun and a cloud, and on the grass in front a goat, a goose and a cow look on. The whole farm scene is drawn in fine dashes: the tractor with its big wheels, the trailer, the road, the hills and the animals. Above the trailer there is a large open space, waiting for the child's own drawing.

This is the one page in the set with no single right answer. After tracing the farm, the child decides what the tractor is carrying today and draws it in the trailer: hay, pumpkins, a horse, a birthday cake or anything else. Tracing first warms up the hand; drawing afterwards lets the child use that control freely and makes the page their own. Ask the child to tell you about the drawing, because explaining a picture is good practice for speaking and, later, for writing a short story.

This printable PDF suits first grade and confident kindergarteners. Compare the finished pages of a whole class: every trailer carries something different. For a page that also ends in the child's own work, try the trace-and-color picnic. Picture tracing follows the outline of whole pictures; abstract line practice, step-by-step drawing and numbered dot-to-dot have their own pages.