I absolutely adore these children’s play X-rays! My 4 year old son has been fascinated with the inner workings of our bodies lately so I went looking for x-rays that we could use with our light table to fully explain skeletons to him. Unfortunately, all the pins I found either went to forbidden pages or items for sale. Oh well, guess I’ll just whip some up…how hard could it be?!
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It was actually more involved than I thought it would be! Turns out, googling “Head X-Ray” brings up a lot of really disturbing images. And while a nail in the middle of someone’s head is scientifically amazing, not really the lesson I was going for with my little one! Guess I’m just going to have to make my own play x-rays!
Play X-Rays Made for Kids!
After hours of looking for just normal x-ray images (as much as I can tell!), I resized and adjusted the contrast to make them as clear as possible and then had my husband draw the corresponding line drawings. Awfully handy having an amazing artist in the family! 😀
I printed the x-rays on vellum paper with the drawn images printed on just standard printer paper. You can either tape the x-rays and drawings together to create a flip book or just leave them separate and have your kids be able to match the drawing to the x-ray. These work great with light tables but you can also just hold them up a window to see the “x-ray” action!
Light Table Fun
We absolutely love the Light Table we converted from our train table. (You can see the tutorial here!) but if you’re short on space, I’ve heard great things about this Light Board on Amazon. It’s thin and lightweight so you can store it pretty much anywhere. Just bring it out to a table when you want to use the Children’s Play X-Rays! By the way, Anchors & Arrows has another great tutorial for a DIY Light Table.
I thought I would put these up on T&T just in case there are any other parents out there who don’t want to go through page after page of gruesome x-rays. That way you won’t have to go searching the internet for x-ray images. Your stomach can thank me later!
I’d love to see how you customize this project so make sure you tag me on my social media accounts!
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Comments & Reviews
Charity G. says
Those are really awesome. I have three little boys who will absolutely love them. Thank you. If you’re looking for a book to go along with it there is one called Bones by Steve Jenkins. My boys are 3 and 5 and they love looking at the pictures and comparing the different sizes of hands, feet, etc in the book.
Vanessa Brady says
I love his books! Definitely going to keep my eye out for that one!
keri @ shaken together says
These are SO cool – pinned! I have tons of friends who homeschool and these are a great addition to their curriculum!
Adriana says
Brilliant!!!!
Vanessa Brady says
Kisses! :^*
Samantha says
Great idea! We have an old X-ray box at home and I was looking for some images for it!
Unfortunately the “Subscribe” button is not working for me, so I can’t subscribe to your newsletter 🙁 I really wanted to download the extra printables. Hopefully by checking the box below it will allow me to subscribe 😀
Vanessa Brady says
Hi Samantha, glad you like the printables! Were you able to subscribe with the checkout box?
monette v. says
thanks! this is a great idea! just have a problem in subscribing…nothing happens when i hit the subscribe button. I would love to have the other printables so much 🙂
Vanessa Brady says
Hmm, I don’t know why it’s not working! 🙁 Were you able to subscribe with the checkout box?
Niki says
Thanks so much for sharing, these are awesome.
Emma (My Little 3 and Me) says
What a great idea. My boys would love it.
Katie says
Thank you! These are great!
Kaycee says
These are exactly what I was looking for with the added bonus of the line drawings, I wouldn’t have thought of that! Would be interesting to do a few more x-rays and let the kids try and draw the original object overtop. The subscribe button doesn’t work for me so I’m hoping the tick box here does.
sarah says
I love this idea. When I try to print the hand X-ray it opens up as a google doc then when I click to print all of your cards and images are stacked on top of each other. Is there a particular browser I should use? I’m on a mac using Safari.
Vanessa Brady says
I just updated this post so that all 9 files are accessible now. Let me know if you have any issues with the pdf.
Jess says
When I download the hand/foot and chest X-ray, I get pictures of a dog, turtle and snake X-ray. It’s not working for me and I love that you have this available for us. =(
Vanessa Brady says
I just updated the link to include all 9 free printable x-rays. Let me know if you have any problems with the pdf!
Rocio says
How can I print them??
Please help! Many thanks!!!
Vanessa Brady says
You should be able to print the file after you enter in your information. A new screen will pop up and you can print from there. Hope that helps!
Katherine in Atlanta says
Oh my goodness, thank you from the bottom of my heart!!!! My 5yo daughter loves all things “doctor” and wants an x-ray machine for Christmas. We are working on a DIY light table and I started Googling to figure out the “x-ray” part of it. This is absolutely wonderful and it’s going to make a little girl very happy on Christmas morning. Thank you for sharing your hard work (and your husband’s too).
Vanessa Brady says
Awh, I’m so happy you found it useful! Let me know if you have any problems with the download!
Narse says
This is so awesome! My sister managed to score an xray view box for my son that we are installing in his room. These will be so great for him to use it. Thank you so much for posting!
Vicki Hibbins says
These are fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing.
Rachel says
Thanks so much! What a great idea. I’ve been wanting X-rays for the kids but never thought to print them on vellum paper.
Vanessa Brady says
They’ve worked so well for us!
Carolyn says
Thank you so much for sharing your hard work – very generous. My little girl is into skeletons at the moment and will love these on our light table.
Vanessa Brady says
So glad you could put them to good use!
Anna says
Incredible – thank you so much for sharing your amazing creation!
Vanessa Brady says
My pleasure!
Kate says
Love this! We’ve used this in our playgroup and I’ll be linking to this page from my blog growwildmychild.com tomorrow. Thanks for the inspiration!
mandycrawley says
Genius!!! Thank you so much for sharing!
Melissa says
awesome and so amazing! my students are going to love this on our light table
Gaelle says
Thank you so much for sharing these. Absolutely amazing!
Heidi Walsh says
Thank you so much! These are amazing! I am doing letter X for preschool!
Rachel says
Wow! This is awesome. Something to look forwards to do with my kids. Thank you so much!
Dolcessori says
Thank so much!! this is great! Did you laminate the vellum x ray copies?
Vanessa Brady says
I didn’t and they’re still holding up all these years later!
Kim says
Brilliant – thank you! I am at the beginning of a seemingly Herculean task of finding these outside the US. Vellum paper is a great idea.
Vanessa Brady says
So glad you like them! Gotta love vellum.
kt says
These are so great, and I love that they include the overlays, too. My kids are currently exploring anatomy and the body and they are going to love these. Thank you.
Vanessa Brady says
I’m so glad you like them! I have to give all credit to my husband for drawing the overlays. 🙂
Jean says
Thank you! This has helped me lots, looking forward to enriching my children’s doctor play bin!
Renee says
Thank you ! theses are awesome.
Vanessa Brady says
So glad you could put them to good use!
Becci Heng says
Thank you for these they look great, just what I was looking for- my class of 4-5 year olds will love them.
Vanessa Brady says
I’m so glad you like them!
Rachel says
Thank you for making these! My 4 year old thinks they are so cool!
kathleen says
thank you for this my daughter will absolutely like this. I can imagine her thrilled face already..you`re awesome!
Melissa says
Amazing! Thanks a million!
Julie says
Thank you SO much for making these X-rays available to print! I also am working on making a DIY lighttable and my two little play doctors are going to love having these X-rays. Thank you to you and your husband!
Vanessa Brady says
I’m so glad you find the useful!
Rachel Johnson says
Thanks so much for this great printable! I have used this for my own children and, recently, in a birthday gift for a friend’s child. I created a pretend play doctor’s kit and added your x-rays for more realism. I blogged about it here: https://www.sisterswithasystem.com/blog/keeping-toddlers-busy-with-pretend-play. Thanks for sharing!
Vanessa Brady says
I’m so glad you enjoyed them!
Tricia says
Thank you so much for sharing these! Brilliant idea and your husband is very talented too. My 4yo has been asking for his own x-ray machine for months so I know he’ll have some fun with these!
Sadie says
These look so great. I’m having the same problem as others. I entered my information and tried to subscribe but nothing popped up. I also don’t see a checkout button.
Vanessa Brady says
Oh no! Did you receive an email with the Tried & True Creative Library password?
Michelle says
Can’t find the X-rays post. Can you please email them [email protected]. Thanks so much. My students will love them
Vanessa Brady says
You can find it in the Creative Library under the printables section.
Kimberly says
Thanks so much for the idea! I remembered a hack using oil on paper to make it transparent so I took your xray idea, printed some photos, rubbed a little oil on the back and let them dry. Then, laminated them for durability. They work great!!
Vanessa Brady says
That’s such a great idea!!!!