Ed Emberley's Fingerprint Thumbprint Drawing Book

Fingerprint Drawing Book - Practice precision with a writing tool.

I love Ed Emberley's drawing books and use several in my practice. The Fingerprint Drawing Book is different than the others in that you will use a fingerprint for the first shape, not a drawing. With a fingerprint or thumbprint, and a few simple lines, kids can create something whimsical and recognizable. For kids who have difficulty drawing or writing, seeing this kind of success can be huge. I have also used these books with kids who cannot write small or need to develop more precise control.

Characters are the size of the child's fingerprints, so kids will be inspired to make the small lines and curves such as you find on rounded lowercase alphabet. This is especially good if you want to stick with one oval or circle shape while you work on other types of lines for the features. Ed Emberley books have been very popular with the kids.

My biggest problem has been finding a reliable colored stamp pad that doesn't dry out right away. I have also used these books without the stamp pad, drawing the fingerprint shapes. 

Other books by Ed Emberley books that I love and have blogged about:

Drawing Book of Faces by Ed Emberley  My favorite drawing book. You can also talk about emotions as you draw.

Goody Gumdrops by Ed Emberley My favorite for beginners. Each animal starts out with the exact same shape, a gumdrop.

Ed Emberley's Christmas Drawing Book -  It's all about winter and Christmas.

Try this:

• Work on diagonal lines for letters such as K, Y, X, W by choosing pictures that incorporate diagonal lines (whiskers, sharp teeth, legs, bird toes). Work on distal rotation by choosing pictures that incorporate small, colored-in circles (eyes, freckles, tassels, chicken pox). Work on rounded lines, such as needed for many lower case letters, by choosing pictures with rounded and wavy lines (ears, water, noses, hair). Sounds pretty basic, doesn't it? One big reason I like the Ed Emberley books is because I can quickly scan each picture looking for the feature(s) that I want to practice without having to make up drawing after drawing in my head. I'm not that fast or that good.Start by practicing some basic symbols on a white board - circles, rectangles, triangles. Then move to the fingerprint characters.
• Plan and make a cohesive picture, or just make random fingerprints on a page and let the child choose the characters to draw in.
• Use different fingers to practice finger isolation and get different sized prints.
• Make all the prints first and then wash your hands before adding details, for those who do not like getting things on their hands. 
   
  Work on distal rotation, sensory awareness, fine motor precision, efficient grasp, finger isolation, manual dexterity, visual discrimination, spatial relations, pencil control, drawing basic lines and symbols, visual closure, leisure and play exploration and participation

If you are interested in purchasing these books or just want more information, click on one of the images below to go to Amazon.com.