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!
DOWNLOAD THE CHILDREN’S PLAY X-RAYS!
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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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Charity G. says
22 May 2013 at 9:27 amThose 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
23 May 2013 at 9:11 amI love his books! Definitely going to keep my eye out for that one!
keri @ shaken together says
22 May 2013 at 10:30 amThese are SO cool – pinned! I have tons of friends who homeschool and these are a great addition to their curriculum!
Adriana says
22 May 2013 at 5:57 pmBrilliant!!!!
Vanessa Brady says
23 May 2013 at 9:06 amKisses! :^*
Samantha says
22 May 2013 at 7:10 pmGreat 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
23 May 2013 at 9:06 amHi Samantha, glad you like the printables! Were you able to subscribe with the checkout box?
monette v. says
22 May 2013 at 9:17 pmthanks! 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
23 May 2013 at 9:05 amHmm, I don’t know why it’s not working! 🙁 Were you able to subscribe with the checkout box?
Niki says
26 May 2013 at 12:14 amThanks so much for sharing, these are awesome.
Emma (My Little 3 and Me) says
29 May 2013 at 3:02 pmWhat a great idea. My boys would love it.
Katie says
24 October 2013 at 9:37 pmThank you! These are great!
Kaycee says
16 February 2014 at 9:16 pmThese 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
28 October 2014 at 9:57 amI 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
9 November 2014 at 4:50 pmI 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
8 November 2014 at 7:54 pmWhen 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
9 November 2014 at 4:54 pmI 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
25 June 2019 at 3:13 pmHow can I print them??
Please help! Many thanks!!!
Vanessa Brady says
7 July 2019 at 7:31 amYou 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
16 November 2014 at 12:54 pmOh 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
16 November 2014 at 9:25 pmAwh, I’m so happy you found it useful! Let me know if you have any problems with the download!
Narse says
18 December 2014 at 11:21 amThis 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
7 January 2015 at 1:59 amThese are fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing.
Rachel says
21 January 2015 at 12:27 amThanks 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
23 January 2015 at 7:48 amThey’ve worked so well for us!
Carolyn says
9 February 2015 at 1:28 pmThank 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
12 February 2015 at 10:17 amSo glad you could put them to good use!
Anna says
15 April 2015 at 11:49 pmIncredible – thank you so much for sharing your amazing creation!
Vanessa Brady says
17 April 2015 at 6:33 pmMy pleasure!
Kate says
16 September 2015 at 11:20 pmLove 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
29 January 2016 at 4:43 pmGenius!!! Thank you so much for sharing!
Melissa says
9 February 2016 at 11:44 amawesome and so amazing! my students are going to love this on our light table
Gaelle says
11 March 2016 at 7:50 pmThank you so much for sharing these. Absolutely amazing!
Heidi Walsh says
12 April 2016 at 1:12 pmThank you so much! These are amazing! I am doing letter X for preschool!
Rachel says
15 September 2016 at 12:24 amWow! This is awesome. Something to look forwards to do with my kids. Thank you so much!
Dolcessori says
20 September 2016 at 5:09 amThank so much!! this is great! Did you laminate the vellum x ray copies?
Vanessa Brady says
22 September 2016 at 6:58 amI didn’t and they’re still holding up all these years later!
Kim says
2 January 2017 at 1:16 pmBrilliant – 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
8 January 2017 at 8:34 amSo glad you like them! Gotta love vellum.
kt says
17 March 2017 at 1:30 pmThese 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
20 March 2017 at 6:47 amI’m so glad you like them! I have to give all credit to my husband for drawing the overlays. 🙂
Jean says
23 July 2017 at 8:12 amThank you! This has helped me lots, looking forward to enriching my children’s doctor play bin!
Renee says
6 November 2017 at 4:06 pmThank you ! theses are awesome.
Vanessa Brady says
10 November 2017 at 9:24 amSo glad you could put them to good use!
Becci Heng says
26 November 2017 at 3:02 amThank 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
28 November 2017 at 5:34 amI’m so glad you like them!
Rachel says
1 February 2018 at 2:58 pmThank you for making these! My 4 year old thinks they are so cool!
kathleen says
6 February 2018 at 9:17 amthank you for this my daughter will absolutely like this. I can imagine her thrilled face already..you`re awesome!
Melissa says
16 April 2018 at 6:40 pmAmazing! Thanks a million!
Julie says
30 May 2018 at 5:50 amThank 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
6 June 2018 at 7:42 amI’m so glad you find the useful!
Rachel Johnson says
3 July 2018 at 3:35 pmThanks 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
21 October 2018 at 8:02 amI’m so glad you enjoyed them!
Tricia says
11 March 2019 at 4:22 pmThank 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!