Sticker By Number

Use mosaic-type stickers to make beautiful pictures with Sticker by Number books.

 

I have found that most kids like stickers. I have used Sticker by Number by Brain Games quite a bit over the years. As you can see in the image above, each picture is divided like a mosaic, with multiple stickers making up a picture on each page. 

There are 28 different pictures to each of these two books, one picture per page and each page perforated so you can tear them out if you want. The books comes in a variety of themes, many nature. The pictures to complete are in the front of the book and the stickers are in the back. In the middle of the book are several pages that show all the completed pictures so you can choose which one you want to work on. I usually make an X throw each picture as they are made so we all know which pictures are left to choose from. There are different companies that make these books but I like the Brain Games brand because they are spiral bound and will lay flat when opened.

Make sure you read the description before buying because this company also makes sticker books with only 10 pictures per book and they are a lot easier, with fewer, larger stickers making up an object for beginners or those with less fine motor control and precision. They are not as good of a value because they cost about the same as the books with 28 pictures, but I have bought a couple of them for those who need something simpler.

UPDATE: I was excited to see that three new books will be released in about a month. As I was looking at them I realized that there are only 13 pictures per book, compared to the 28 they have now. Less than half as many! The books with 28 pictures are $9.98 and the books with 13 pictures are $8.98. So if you go to buy, make sure you read the description so you will know what you are getting.

There are a few things I will mention about the stickers that you should be aware of. First, each page has it's own set of numbers, starting with 1 and going up. For some reason they start the numbers with a letter. So the stickers for one picture will be numbered A1, A2, A3, A4, etc. Another picture will be numbered B1, B2, B3, B4, etc. It took a couple of my kids a bit to get used to the letters. 

Second, the stickers are in the back of the book and two or three sets may be on the same page, separated by wavy lines. Here is an example:

Left: Picture number 10.    Right: Stickers for number 10. The bottom shows a wavy line and stickers for 11 under it.

Not everyone I work with can separate them by cutting on that wavy line. You could just rip the whole sticker page out of the book, but then you might lose the other stickers that you don't use. I will cut them out if they can't.

Third, since the stickers are close together, a number may look like it belongs to one sticker when it really goes to another sticker close by. Most kids that I give these to can adjust when they see it does not fit the number they thought and then they go looking for the shape and find it. For those who can't, I cut the stickers into small groups of 3-5 stickers, making sure that none of the numbers in a group look like they could go to more than one sticker. This sounds time consuming, but it really only takes a couple of minutes.

The stickers are sticky and will stick just fine, however I have also seen kids pick stickers back up if they are not satisfied with the alignment. So they are not difficult to remove with care. Some of the pictures have more stickers than others. I am using the book with the butterflies now, and a few pages are missing, but the stickers per picture left in the book range from 20 - 95, with the vast majority being in the middle of that range.

I have given these books to kids for gifts, I have used them during therapy for those who could benefit from them, and I have torn out a page and the stickers and left them behind after a session for those who are already good at it but love doing them. For kids that needed help separating the stickers I have even cut along the wavy lines in the back, but not tearing them out, before giving them a book as a gift so they can work on it without needing help. They have been very popular with the kids on my caseload. I just published a Christmas version, which I will use during November and December.

To get an idea of what other kinds of pictures are in each book, go to Amazon and click on the small images to the left of the page. Check them out here.

Try this:

• Give kids all the stickers in the same area if they are rusty with counting. For instance give them all the 20's so they can look in one area, as they are usually together on the pictures, instead of a mix of random stickers that will be time consuming to find.
• Use if working on counting or reading/recognizing bigger numbers. Maybe start by doing a couple of dot-to-dot pictures in the same difficulty range, counting the numbers aloud as you go.
• Make a picture starting with sticker number 1 and working up from there in number order. This may be too tedious or time consuming if there are a lot of stickers.
• Start with pictures with fewer stickers and work your way up to the ones with a larger number of stickers. Write the number of stickers each picture has next to its picture in the middle of the book. Then you won't lose time during therapy reviewing all the pictures that are left. Make a note with the individual's name in the border on the middle pages and list the numbers of stickers they use each time, increasing the amount as they go. 
• Encourage the kids to close the gaps and be more precise if large white gaps are left between stickers. Model how to start at one end and line the stick up nicely and then put the rest of it down.
• Ask the individual to turn the sticker in-hand if they are holding it in the incorrect orientation for placement. This sounds difficult to do with something sticky, but I have watched kids do it over and over.
• Practice cutting skills by cutting the sticker page into small groups of stickers and work from that. Or, if the individual needs the stickers given to them separately, let them or you can cut the small groups of stickers apart. 
• Start each sticker by picking up one corner if the individual cannot start it themselves.
• Show the individual and then practice how to bend the paper near one of the corners to make it easier to grasp onto to lift.
  
• Work on visual discrimination, figure ground, eye-hand coordination, spatial relations, visual form constancy, number recognition, counting, manual dexterity, fine motor precision, using two hands in a coordinated manner, in hand manipulation, process skills, executive functioning skills, play and leisure exploration and participation.

If you are interested in purchasing this item or just want more information, click on the image below.