Zip, Zap, and Zup Activity Books are for more than just fun
Our activity books are filled with lots of different games, puzzles, and activities at differing complexity levels. Each book is unique and ties back to the stories in the corresponding Adventure book to help your little ones get even more out of the stories.
Use the arrows below to scroll through the various examples.
Every book contains over 10 coloring pages, especially suited for very young children. Each page is a page from the Adventure book, with the text from that page and the picture, simplified a bit, and ready to color. Can you stay within the lines?
Color by number helps develop fine motor skills, matching skills, and helps reinforce number recognition.
Another fun activity is Connect the Dots where the children are learning their numbers and sequencing without even realizing it. Some of the Connect the Dots puzzles are fairly involved and some are very simple.
A favorite activity is Spot the Differences, where you look for 5 changes between the first picture and the second. Children of every age like the challenge of finding what has changed.
Our Scavenger hunts challenge young and older children as they search for objects in the picture that match the key at the bottom. We always make sure at least one object is hidden really well, while others might be pretty obvious.
Our favorite game, the dot game. Players take turns connecting the dots to form a line. When they form a complete box, they put their initial in it. The player with the most boxes at the end wins. Each game board is unique, giving players the ability to strategically use the "safe" places where a box can't be formed.
We always include a page with a bunch of tic-tac-toe boards. This is a game that younger and older children can play together.
In addition to traditional tic-tac-toe, we always include several tic-tac-toe variations. Some of them can be quite intense are intended more for older children.
For slightly older children we have word searches. Every book includes 3 basic word searches (one for each story), and an advanced one where words can be spelled forwards or backwards. For younger children word searches teach letter recognition and matching skills. For older children they reinforce vocabulary and on the advanced search, challenge the children to think in a non-linear fashion.
For older children we also include crossword puzzles. We try to keep them simple and most of the answers are words that were directly in the book. The solutions to all the puzzles are in the back of the book.
For those children who really like a challenge we have Hidden Messages in each book, with a concluding message that reinforces the overall theme to the book. Every Hidden Message includes "hints" at the bottom in case the solution is a little too hard for them to figure out by themselves. The solution is also in the back of the book.
Many of the Hidden Messages puzzles are based on cryptography, helping to develop basic decoding techniques and pattern matching. They are not only fun, but introduce the children to a whole new branch of science and mathematics at a level appropriate for them.
We always have 4 mazes in each book, with varying degrees of difficulty. A good maze is fun for kids of all ages.
