*MSWord format card
contributed by fellow teacher
***these are the free files designed for easy
downloading (quality may vary from our custom printed sets).
Print the cards on card stock or bright white paper. You may have to experiment to
see what direction makes the front and back line up. Glossy or thick paper
will help keep ink jet ink from soaking the page.
One user had to tell his Epson print driver to center the page to the
paper, not maximize the print area. If you're having trouble aligning the
sides, check your print setup to see if this is possible.
Laminate the cards for durability. You can buy Self-Adhesive Laminating Sheets,
or take the full sheets to an office supply store to have them laminated.
A fellow teacher reports success by printing the pages separately,
inserting them into wallet-sized laminating pouches, and sealing them with
an iron (using a towel between the iron and the pouch).
Cut them to make your own trading cards. A good rotary paper cutter is
helpful. I round the corners using for safety's sake and to make them look
professional. Scrapbooking suppliers sell corner-rounders, although
the laminate sticks in the inexpensive ones. I have successfully
used a round section of decorative scissors to round them.
Office Depot and other office supply stores provide these
kind of supplies.
The cards include a good deal of text, and readers get the
most benefit from them. Upper grade school and lower middle school seem the
most enthralled with the cards. But the preschoolers and early readers
memorize the images on the front, and grow into the cards. We have had
success with grades K-8. We've been thrilled with the enthusiasm that our
grade school boys have shown for the cards.
I'm having trouble getting to the cards. What's the matter?
How long did you wait for them to open? The files are extremely large
and Adobe does not always show you that it is loading the page. Give it
some time.
Try this: Instead of trying to open the file,
Right-click on the link
and choose Save Target As... This will save the file to your computer
without also trying to open Adobe at the same time. Then you can log off
and open the file at your leisure.
Why are the cards numbered as they are?
I started making these cards when teaching a
multitude of prophets, kings and characters in the Old Testament
to primary students. I started numbering with the first cards I
made.
Why are the edges uneven? Why doesn't it all print?
I tried to add extra color on the outside of the cards to add a little
flexibility to cutting them. Your printer may have different margins and may
not print it all. Some ink jet printers require a .6 inch margin on one
edge, which may cut a little off one side. (I used .5 inch margins all
around). If your print driver has a "maximize the print area" function,
you'll have to turn it off.
How many are you going to make?
I now have over 150 cards covering the entire
Old and New Testament, a major goal which took three years. With
the completion of the Old Testament, I am going to focus more on
the lessons again. Additional booster sets may become available
in the future.
How did you make the cards?
I use
CorelDRAW
to format and alter the clip art from
Bible
Clips, a terrific clip art program.
Why do some cards have two per page, some one, and some four?
This is how I originally created the pages. I decided it would be better to
get the cards uploaded than to wait until I reformatted all the cards.
A helpful teacher, Thomas J. Cook, shares how he customizes the sets
for his curriculum:
"I started out by using the .PDF files you provide, and that worked
well. With 20 or so kids enrolled, though, I have been preparing 16 of
each card for each lesson. This means that I have a lot of cards which
do not fit our curriculum (at least at this point). So I figured out a
way to make my own sheets of eight of a single card (or mix and match in
other ways) so I can fit the cards to the lesson.
"I've attached a copy of my
MS Word 97 template, which is simply
a 4x2 grid of text boxes set up to align front and back (at least it
does on my Epson Color 600 printer...I would think it would work on
others as well, but could require a little tuning). Here's the process:
1) Use the graphics select tool to cut the desired card image using
Acrobat Reader. It is important to use the highest zoom level possible
to get the best resolution in the final result.
2) Paste the clipboard image as a "new image" into a graphics editor. I
use PaintShop Pro.
3) Resize the image to exactly 3.5" by 2.25". This may require a
combination of resize and canvas size, but is necessary to retain the
proper layout. Alternatively, you can resize the image to any
dimensions with the same proportion (1:1.555). The correct aspect ratio
is essential.
4) Copy the image and past into each of the text boxes in the first page
of the template.
5) Repeat with the reverse side of the card, pasting to the second page
of the template.
You can make mixed sheets of two or more cards if you wish, but remember
that one page reads right-to-left, while the second page reads
left-to-right. Top and bottom are maintained, of course. This technique
takes a while the first time, but with practice it becomes rather
routine and allows optimum use of ink, paper, and printer time."
When the file opens in the Adobe PDF browser, the PDF
toolbar has a blue Save A Copy (see below) icon that looks like an
old floppy disk. Click on that button and tell the reader where on your
computer you'd like to save the file. Saving the file allows you to access
it more quickly (since it's not downloading), use it when offline, and saves
us on server costs, too!
These cards are provided "as is" and may or may not contain
unintentional errors.