We have a lovely little activity for you today courtesy of Natascha Maksimovic from www.natmaks.com. She is a printmaker based in Margate, and makes her own handprinted wallpapers and art prints at the company. She works with a traditional Japanere Art, Suminagashi, which means floating ink. It is a gorgeous paper marbeling craft, an endangered craft, as listed by the Heritage Paper Marbling association. It creates unique wallpaper for each customer, and YOU can create your own unique art in the same way with our activity from her today. This is a character art colouring and design game – your kids will cut out the letters we have provided and then use their imaginations….
How to design your own letter characters
We have provided you with a few colouring sheets, as well as your own letters to help build your characters.
In order to do this character art colouring and game activity, just click on the square image below and follow the instructions.
- Print out the sheet of black print characters, you can print them more than once, so you have lots of different options for your design,
- Cut out each of the character shapes (on page 6 of the activity pack we have) and lay them out in front of you on a flat surface,
- Take a look at all the shapes in front of you, and also the other 5 pictures that we have provided for you as inspiration. The shapes aren’t the same in the colouring sheets we have given you BUT you get the idea of what we are trying to achieve,
- Use the letters and the shapes we have provided to build your own shapes and designs. They are be actually characters, or just a simple pattern that you or your children like,
- Keep having fun and playing with them to make your own pictures,
- Once you have decided on one that you like best, find some coloured card, and stick down your design,
- Finally you can frame it and pop it on your wall.
Now you have your own piece of modern art for your bedroom!
We have had a go at this ourselves – what do you think?
Yep we agree – we won’t be giving up the day job anytime soon! 😂
We hope you can, at least, tell what it is though? It is a sort of bird/chick/type creature…
This is a great activity, not just for creativity, but also for character and letter recognition as well. You can work through what all of the letters and symbols are while you are using them to build your characters. You could even see if you can make any words with them – if you print out a few other sheets… There won’t be many, but there are definitely some three and four letter ones there if you spend a bit of time on it.
We do have a lot of other activities for the kids on the site, so do check them out as well, if you like this one. There are some other reading focused ones in particular.
Languages and Reading
Some ideas for you around languages and reading from an early age.
Alphabet poster printables
Alphabet posters to pop on the wall of any kids room.
Alphabet flash cards
Some flash cards to go with those posters.
Kids reading: How to encourage them
How to encourage kids to read generally.
Why is reading so important: Interview with Angela James
A chat with Angela James, the author, about why reading is so important.
If you want some external articles focused on reading, do take a look here too.
15+ Reading Strategies for Unknown Words {Tips for Parents}
FREE Reading Tips Brochure - to Parents from Teachers
10 Ways to improve reading fluency
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Thanks as always for spending the time to read this, and thanks to Natascha for this ideas as well. Do pop over the her site, NatMaks, and check out her gorgeous wallpaper and art if you can as well.
Helen
Helen
Helen is a mum to two, social media consultant, and website editor; and this site is (we think) the only Social Enterprise parenting magazine!Since giving up being a business analyst when juggling travel, work and kids proved too complicated, she founded KiddyCharts so she could be with her kids, and use those grey cells at the same time.KiddyCharts has reach of over 1.1million across social and the site. The blog works with big family brands (including travel) to help promote their services, as well as offering free resources to parents of kids under 10.It gives 51%+ profits to Reverence for Life, who fund a number of important initiatives in Africa, including bringing running water and basic equipment to a school in Tanzania.Helen has worked as a digital marketing consultant (IDM qualified) with various organisations, including Channel Mum, Truprint, Talk to Mums, and Micro Scooters. She loves to be creative in the brand campaigns she works on.Get in touch TODAY!