Every finished book has an activity sheet you can print: something to do with the story once the screen is off. It is made from the book itself, so the words are the ones your child read, the picture is one of the book's own, and the questions are the ones at the end of the book.
Printing one
- Go to Readers and choose your child.
- Open the "Books" tab.
- Next to a finished book, press "Activity sheet". You can also open the book and press "Print an activity sheet" under "On paper".
- Under "Paper", choose "US Letter" or "A4", whichever is in your printer.
- If the book has more than one picture, choose one under "Picture to color" and press "Use this picture".
- Press "Print it", and choose your printer in the print window. To keep it as a file, choose "Save as PDF" there instead.
The sheet prints on up to three pages. Any part the book has nothing for is left out: an older book with no questions stored, for example, prints without the questions page.
What is on it
- Words from the book. For the two youngest groups, a few words to trace over and then write on the line. For a child learning to read by sounding out, each word has marks under it showing its sounds, the same ones the book shows when they tap a word, and the book's tricky words (like "said" and "the") are in a box of their own to read as a whole. For older readers, harder words from the book with the meanings the book was made with, and a line to use each in a sentence. Characters' names are never on the list.
- A picture to color. One of the book's pictures, turned into black lines on white. Some pictures are too soft or misty to turn into clean lines. When that happens the picture prints pale gray instead, to color over, and the page says so. Choosing a different page's picture may give you lines.
- The book's questions. Up to three, each with its choices to circle and a box to draw or write the answer in. The youngest draw; older readers write. The answers are printed small at the foot of the page for the grown-up.
Your child's first name appears once, at the top of the first page, the way it does on the cover of a printed book.
About the coloring picture
The line version is made on our own server from the book's picture, the first time you open the sheet, and nothing is sent anywhere to make it. We keep that copy so the next sheet is quicker, and we delete it the night after the picture itself is deleted or drawn again. It is not a new picture and nobody else can see it.
If you print several sheets within an hour, the next one may arrive without its coloring page. The words and questions are still there; wait a little while and reload the page for the picture.
Which books have one
Only finished books that are on your child's shelf. A book that is still being made, is waiting for you, or has been put away has no "Activity sheet" button. Your child cannot print from their own screens; printing is for grown-ups, from the grown-ups' pages. See Printing a book or saving it as a PDF for printing the whole book.