Coloring sheet

(54) Title: COLORING SHEET, COLORING SYSTEM, AND, METHOD FOR USING COLORING SHEET (30) Unionist Priority: 30/08/2007 ush / 847815 (73) Holder (s): Meadwestvaco Corporation (57) Abstract: coloring sheet, coloring system, and, METHOD FOR USING COLORING SHEET. A coloring sheet including a sheet of paper and a drawing formed on the sheet of paper is described. The design is formed at least partially by a pair of parallel raised relief lines, where the adjacent relief lines are spaced at a distance of less than about 1/2 inch (12.7 millimeters).

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PIQ803377-3 “COLORING SHEET, COLORING SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR USING COLORING SHEET”

The present invention concerns a coloring sheet and, more particularly, a coloring sheet with raised lines to guide a user's stroke and / or coloring.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Preschoolers and others who learn to draw or write can use tools, guides or the like to help their development. Such tools, guides and the like can help develop writing instrument control skills, visual motor control skills, fine motor control skills, visual perception skills and bilateral user coordination skills. Developing these skills helps to advance and improve the user's writing and drawing skills.

SUMMARY

In one embodiment, the invention is a coloring sheet including a sheet of paper in a design formed on the sheet of paper. The design is formed at least partially by a pair of parallel raised relief lines, where the adjacent relief lines are spaced at a distance of less than about 1/2 inch (12.7 millimeters).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 is a top view of a coloring sheet;

Figure 2 is a lateral cross section taken along line 2-2 of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a top view of another coloring sheet;

Figure 4 is a top view of the leaf of Figure 3, with the leaf partially colored; and

Figure 5 illustrates the nine forms of pre-writing.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

As shown in figure 1, in one embodiment, the coloring sheet 10 of the present invention includes a coloring surface or sheet of paper 12 with one or more designs (three, in the illustrated embodiment) 14 formed on the sheet of paper 12. Each design 14 can have any of a variety of recognizable objects and shapes, such as animals, flowers, objects, drawings, people, etc. Although each drawing 14 can be in the form of alphanumeric characters, in one embodiment the drawings 14 are not alphanumeric characters.

The sheet of paper 12 can be made of any of a wide variety of materials, but will typically be made of cellulose-based or pulp-based paper, such that paper 12 is generally water-absorbent and can be written over a wide variety of media (for example, pens, pencils, markers, craions, etc.). The sheet 12 may be relatively thin, and may have a thickness of about 0.5 mm or less. However, sheet 12 can be made of any of a relatively wide variety of materials, and does not necessarily have to be a water-absorbent material (i.e., it could be a write / erase material (polymer) that can be reused, etc.) .). The sheet 12 may be of a generally white color to encourage coloring on it, such as by craions and the like. However, sheet 12 can be any of a variety of other colors.

Each drawing 14 can be drawn or formed at least partially by a pair of adjacent parallel raised lines 16 (i.e., each line in the drawings 14 of figure 1 represents a raised line). As shown in figure 2, each embossed line 16 can be permanently embossed, and can be an embossed line defined by a deformation of the sheet 12. However, in addition to the embossing, each embossed line 16 can be formed by other structures, such as an area of ​​greater thickness of the sheet 12, an area of ​​accumulated ink or other materials (that is, by thermography), or similar . Each pair of raised lines 16 can be curved or straight, in the desired manner to provide the desired design 14. As can be seen, several pairs of supported raised lines that intersect 16 forming non-parallel angles can be used to form a single design 14 or part of a design 14.

Each pair of raised lines 16 can define a space 18 between them. Each space 18 is sized and modeled to receive the tip of a writing instrument 20 on it to guide the writing instrument 20 as the user guides the writing instrument 20 between the raised lines 16. In this way, the user can write along the length of the space 18 as the writing instrument 20 is dragged along the length of the raised lines 16. The raised lines 16 help to keep the writing instrument 20 between the lines 16 and within the space 18, thus increasing the user's skill and success with visual motor control.

The space 18 can be small enough, and / or the writing instrument 20 can be large enough, so that when the writing instrument 20 writes along the base of the space 18, the writing instrument 20 fits both opposite embossed lines 16. This feature can be used by a user who needs to develop more basic writing / drawing skills, and encourage user confidence. Alternatively, if desired, the space 18 may be sufficiently large, and / or the writing instrument 20 may be sufficiently small, such that when the writing instrument 20 writes along the base of the space 18, the writing instrument 20 do not fit any embossed lines 16, if the writing instrument 20 is sufficiently centered. In this case, when the user deviates sufficiently from the center, the writing instrument 20 fits one of the raised lines 16, thus guiding the writing instrument 20 and providing tactile feedback to the user.

Thus, the size (i.e., horizontal dimension of the flat area between the raised lines 16) of the space 18 can be adjusted as desired, and can be less than about 1/2 (12.7 millimeters) in size, and can vary between about 1/16 (1.59 millimeter) and about 1/2 (12.7 millimeters). Each embossed line 16 can have a height that is between about 0.05 mm and about 1 mm, and more particularly between about 0.1 mm and about 0.4 mm above the rest of the sheet 12 to provide height enough to provide guidance and feedback, but not so high as to prevent the writing instrument 20 from writing / drawing in space 18.

A user can thus fill in or color the outer perimeter of the drawing 14, or other areas of the drawing 14, defined by the raised lines 16, guiding the writing instrument 20 between the raised lines 16 in the manner described above. Different colors can be used in different spaces 18 as desired. For example, for the flower design 14 shown in figure 1, a green writing instrument can be used on the raised lines 16 defining the stem and leaves of the flower; a yellow writing instrument can be used on the raised lines 16 defining the leaves; and a black writing instrument can be used on the raised lines 16 defining the center of the flower.

In addition, the generally closed areas (or field areas) 20 defined or delimited by the raised lines 16 can also be colored in the desired manner. Field areas 20 can be colored in the same color used in the outer perimeter pair of the embossed lines 16, or in a different color. For example, back to the flower example in figure 1, green can be used to color the areas of the leaf to give a color match to the border, and red can be used to color the petals to give a color that contrasts with the edge. The internal embossed line defining the areas of the field 20 provides tactile feedback when coloring the area of ​​the field 20 so that the user can determine when his writing instrument 20 is approaching the outer edge of the field area 20, which helps to increase confidence (coloring within limits) and encourages further development. Thus, each pair of embossed lines 16 can serve the dual purpose of allowing boundary lines to be drawn in a guided manner, while also serving as a guide to help color generally closed areas 20.

Several sheets 12 can be alloyed to provide a coloring book including several sheets 12 in the manner described herein. Each sheet 12 can include only a single design 14, or, if desired, can include multiple designs 14 on it.

Each sheet 10 can include or carry at least one hand-shaped sign 22 on which a user can place his hand to manually stabilize sheet 10 during use 22.

Each sheet 10 can include or carry at least one hand signal 22 on which the user can place his hand to manually stabilize sheet 10 during use 22. Each hand signal 22 can include or take the form of a visual signal 21 printed or otherwise carried on sheet 10. In the illustrated modality, each visual cue 21 takes the form of a visual representation (ie drawing, design, photograph or the like) of a hand to signal or encourage a user to place their hand on the hand cue 22. However, the cue visual 21 may take the form of other distinctive marks besides a hand. For example, some other distinctive mark (for example, a star, or the letter H, although almost any type of distinctive mark can be used) can be provided on sheet 10. A user can teach (that is, on sheet 10 , by instructions / associated packaging, by a teacher or parent, etc.) that the distinctive mark 28 must be associated with hand stabilization. In this case, when a user sees visual signaling 21, the user is prompted to stabilize sheet 10 with his non-dominant hand (ie, the non-writing hand).

Teachers typically find it difficult to ensure that their students properly stabilize their sheets 10 during use. In this way, hand signals 26 serve as a constant reminder for the user to encourage proper stabilization and use of the sheet 10.

Each hand signal 22 can be positioned on the outer perimeter of sheet 10, or adjacent to it, to ensure proper hand placement. In particular, encouraging a user to place their stabilizing hand on the outer edge of sheet 10, or adjacent to it, ensures that maximum stabilizing force is exercised, while ensuring that the stabilizing hand does not interfere with writing operations on the sheet 10. Thus, at least part of each hand signal 22 can be located about 3 inches (76.2 millimeters) from the outer edge of sheet 10, or about 10% or 20% of the height or width of sheet 10 from the edge external.

Sheet 10 may include a hand signal 22 on both the left and right side of sheet 10 (with the left and right orientation being viewed from the perspective of a user looking at the sheet in a normal configuration, shown in figure 1). The use of two opposite hand signals 26 ensures that one hand signal 22 is sufficiently present and available to both right- and left-handed users. As best shown in figures 3 and 4, both hand signals 26 can be located in the upper half of the drawing sheet 12 since the stabilization of the upper half of the sheet 12 is more effective and allows complete access to the drawing sheet. In addition, hand signal 22 on the left side of sheet 12 (used by right-handed users) is positioned below hand signal 22 on the right side of sheet 12 (used by left-handed users). Because of the layout of most drawing sheets, as well as the orientation of writing boards, etc., it is desirable to place hand signal 22 for left-handed users higher on sheet 12 than the other hand signal 22. In particular , because of the different ways in which the left-handed user typically positions and stabilizes the paper, compared to a right-handed user, the right sign 22 is ideally positioned above on sheet 10.

The development of forms of pre-writing is important in developing appropriate writing and drawing skills. In particular, the nine forms of pre-writing 26, shown in figure 5, consist of a vertical line, a horizontal line, a circle, a cross (also more specifically known as a horizontal and vertical cross), an oblique to the right , a square an oblique to the left, an X (also known more specifically as an oblique cross) and a triangle. These forms of pre-writing 26 can be arranged to create all capital letters of the English alphabet (or the Latin alphabet) and are therefore important building blocks for a user to learn and build. The design 14 of each sheet 10 can therefore incorporate the pre-writing forms 26, or their similar variants, to encourage familiarity with the forms 26 and to practice drawing them. The use of pre-written forms 26 develops visual motor integration that is important in the development of writing, coloring and drawing skills.

Coloring within the boundaries is an important skill that facilitates the development of visual discrimination (the ability to recognize sudden differences) that is required for letter alignment (on lined paper) and verification skills. Tracing around the area before coloring the area also increases the user's ability to successfully color the area within the lines, and also develops visual motor control to draw within paths. Coloring also develops control of the writing instrument. Tracing around an area before staining is a strategy that increases the child's success with in-line coloring.

In addition, coloring within narrow paths develops fine motor control and is a prerequisite for writing on lined paper. These tasks also develop visual tracing skills that facilitate reading and writing fluency, and precision at your fingertips that allow you to write more efficiently and with a smaller font size. Sheet 10 can be packaged for sale along with a set of instructions that instructs the user (or parents, teachers, etc.). user) to use sheet 10 in the manner described here.

Having described the invention in detail and with reference to various modalities, it should be understood that modifications and variations of it are possible, without departing from the scope of the invention.