Five line drawings divided into numbered regions, with a key along the bottom of the sheet pairing each number with a colour name. The numbers are small, grey and set in the middle of each area rather than on an outline, so they sit clear of the line work and vanish under a crayon.
Five subjects, two levels of detail
The picture control offers a Christmas tree, a snowman, a gingerbread man, a stocking and a wrapped present. The drawings are geometric rather than fussy: wide tiers, large circles, a plain bow, which is what a region has to be if a number is going to sit in it clearly.
The regions control sets Fewer, bigger or More detail. On the tree, the first gives five regions and a three colour key of green, brown and yellow. The second adds baubles across the tiers and takes it to eleven regions and six colours.
Which setting for which age
Fewer, bigger is the one for three to five year olds. Five large areas and three colours means the child is matching a number to a pencil rather than negotiating a crowded page, and the whole sheet finishes in a sitting.
More detail suits five to eight. Six colours is about the limit before a child starts checking the key for every region instead of remembering it, and the smaller circles on the tree and the snowman are a genuine test of staying inside a line.
The key sits at the foot
Each key entry is the number in a small box followed by the colour word, running left to right under a hairline rule. Reading it is a word and a number rather than a printed colour patch, so the sheet still works printed in black and white, which is how most people print.
That does mean the child needs to be able to read the colour words, or have somebody read them once at the start. For a pre-reader, write the colour names over in the matching pencil before handing the sheet over and the key becomes a picture.
Questions
- What pictures are on the colour by number sheets?
- Five: a Christmas tree, a snowman, a gingerbread man, a stocking and a wrapped present. Each one is chosen from the picture list above the sheet and prints one to a page.
- How many colours does each sheet need?
- Between two and six depending on the picture and the setting. The gingerbread man needs two, and the tree needs three at the simpler setting and six at the more detailed one.
- What age are these for?
- Three to five at the Fewer, bigger setting, where the tree has five large regions and three colours. Five to eight at More detail, which adds smaller regions such as the baubles on the tree.
- Do the numbers get in the way of colouring?
- No. They are small, grey and placed in the middle of each region rather than against an outline, so a crayon covers them without the number smudging into the line work around it.