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Fun and easy kids activities

Homemade Animal Picture Puzzle

Sep 3, 20123,146 views
Nature crafts
Homemade Puzzles Save
Homemade Animal Picture Puzzle Save
Homemade Animal Picture Puzzle Save
Homemade Animal Picture Puzzle Save
Homemade Animal Picture Puzzle Save
Homemade Animal Picture Puzzle Save

by TurkeyMom in Nature crafts

Ages4–8 yrs
Prep25 min
Activity20 min
Leveleasy
MessLow
Works for1:1 · Small group

Print a favorite animal picture on card stock, trace puzzle pieces on the back using an ordinary puzzle as a template, and cut it into a one-of-a-kind jigsaw. Kids sort the pieces and rebuild the picture using a reference copy.

⚠️ Safety first

  • Adult does the cutting with scissors.
  • Cut puzzle pieces are small; supervise children who still put things in their mouths.

Before the kids arrive

  • Print the chosen animal picture in color on card stock, plus an extra copy for reference.
  • Trace puzzle pieces on the back of the card stock and cut them out.

Steps

  1. Pick an animal with your child and print its picture in color on card stock.

  2. Flip the card stock over, lay regular puzzle pieces on the back and trace around them.

  3. Adult: cut out the pieces along the traced lines.

  4. Mix up the pieces and spread them around on a firm base.

  5. Keep the reference picture nearby to look at while you work.

  6. Sort the pieces into piles: faces, body parts and background.

  7. Fit the faces together first, then fill in the rest of the picture.

Tips

  • I love it when they come up with their own project. Big A asked for a cheetah project, then changed her mind halfway and wanted a puzzle, so go with it.from the author
  • It is not easy fitting pieces made out of card stock: the material is flimsy and the pieces can't be cut all that accurately. A puzzle fan won't mind, but expect some fiddling.from the author
  • Big A sorted the pieces into 3 piles (face, body parts and just green parts) and fixed the mama cheetah and the cubs first.from the author
  • Keep track of the pieces. Ours was finished with one piece missing.from the author

Make it your own

  • Skip the puzzle shapes and cut the animal into 4 body parts to put back together (the original plan).
  • Use any animal your child loves.
  • Make it part of a month of animal activities leading up to World Animal Day on October 4th.

The story behind it

By TurkeyMom · September 2012
Homemade Animal Picture Puzzle
Big A clearly said she wants to do a "cheetah project" and explained how we do it. So we printed out a cheetah on our colored card stock.
1 / 6

Homemade Animal Picture Puzzle: the original post

We are an animal loving household. On account of World Animal Day on October 4th, we have decided to do a month long animal play, crafts, art, activities – one animal related post per day to spread the love for animals by kids and humans in general.

What is World Animal Day?

“World Animal Day has become a day for remembering and paying tribute to all animals and the people who love and respect them. It’s celebrated in different ways in every country, with no regard to nationality, religion, faith or political ideology. ”

World Animal Day U.K.

Angelina Felix did an amazing job job of hosting a “animal play” blog hop last year and is doing the same this year as well.

We are happy to be participating in the blog hop this time around.

Onto today’s post Husband is a big pet lover and had many growing up (parrot, dog, cat). He is always gushing how good a pet can be to a child. It teaches a kid how to care, love for animals, how to be responsible, how to read emotional cues. The apple did not fall far away from the tree since the older one is a huge fan of anything “wildlife”. Today’s activity came straight out of the horse’s mouth. Big A clearly said she wants to do a “cheetah project” and went on to explain how we do it. I love it when they come up with their own project. Anyway that’s what we did with a bit of twist because along the way she changed her mind.

  • Yellow card stock paper
  • scissors
  • firm base to arrange the pieces
  • Color Printer
  • Computer
  1. Printed our a cheetah in one of our colored paper
  2. Cut out the cheetah into different body parts

Right when I was about to cut them into 4 body parts, Big A changed her mind and said she wanted a cheetah puzzle. Not hard I thought to myself. Flipped the card stock over and used my regular wooden puzzle pieces to trace on the back of the cardstock.

Cut them out and spread the pieces around.

Use a firm base to work on the puzzle. Big A had her reference picture and immediately started working on the puzzle. She started out sorting the pieces into 3 piles - face, body parts and just green parts. The mama cheetah and the cubs were fixed first

The puzzle taking shape

I must say it is not easy fitting pieces made out of card stock because of two reasons. the material and the pieces could not be cut out all that accurately. Since she is a big animal an and a bigger puzzle fan she did not get frustrated and managed to finish it off with one piece missing.

Stay tuned for more animal activities.

Thanks for reading

Happy Sharing

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What readers say

💬 3 comments ✍️ 1 answered by the author

Tried it?

Reviewed before it appears. No links, and please no children's names.

Read all 3 comments

  1. Angelique Felix (@AngeliqueFelix) · Sep 2012

    Thank you for linking up!! I love your initiative also very much! We should collaborate next time!!! Are you inside the kids Bloggers Network? It's a cool place for kdis bloggers to connect on Facebook.

  2. TurkeyMomAuthor · Sep 2012 · replying to Angelique Felix (@AngeliqueFelix)

    I just joined Kids Bloggers network. Yet to do the same on Pinterest. We loved animal play here.

  3. Mithila · Sep 2012

    Very nice! I love animals too like Big A! :) Make more animal stuff and post it :)

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