Trace the Picture: Zigzag Mountains and a Stormy Camp

Evening has come to a camp in the mountains. A row of sharp peaks crosses the page from edge to edge, a storm cloud with lightning and raindrops hangs over the middle valley, and a star and a moon shine in the corners of the sky. Below the mountains three fir trees stand on the ground, each with three zigzag tiers, and a tent waits for the campers between them. The scene is dashed (the peaks, the trees, the tent, the cloud, the rain and the lightning bolts); only the grass tufts are solid.

A zigzag is two slanted lines that meet in a point, and the skill is to stop at the point and change direction instead of rounding it off. That is exactly the movement needed later for letters such as v, w, k and z. On this page the zigzags are part of real things, the mountains and the fir trees, so the child practices them with a reason to keep going. Remind the child to stop at every tip, at the top of every peak and at the end of every branch, then set off in the new direction. The points are wide apart, so there is room to stop.

This printable PDF suits kindergarten, after the straight-line page and before the curls and spirals page. It also makes a good autumn or camping-week activity, and the finished picture is ready to color. Picture tracing follows the outline of whole pictures; abstract line practice, step-by-step drawing and numbered dot-to-dot have their own pages.