DIY Pokemon Cards {Free Printable Template}

There's something about age six and Pokemon because it seems every single boy in J's grade one class is as enthusiastic about Pokemon as he is. I've spotted a few of his classmates carrying homemade Pokemon cards around, which inspired me to make a template for J to use. I was hoping that the template would encourage him to explore art more, since he really doesn't do much for art and hasn't since he was a fingerpainting toddler. It's probably because art is usually too abstract for such a literal thinker like him. Well, these free printable DIY Pokemon card templates certainly fueled his creativity and had the whole family creating, drawing, and playing together.

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Pokemon is all the rage in our house! My husband used to collect them as a kid so he has a whole binder full of cards, but the entire family has recently learned to play the trading card game. Six year old J enjoys playing at least one game every morning before breakfast. He absolutely loves it!

But here's why I love it: Pokemon has brought J out of his shell. It has turned him into a storyteller and has given us more insight into the way his mind works. And, more importantly, Pokemon has become a tool for us to better connect with J, similar to how I use math to connect with him.

Design Your Own Pokemon Cards with a Free Printable Template

At first, my oldest, J, was reluctant to draw his own Pokemon and quickly became upset. However, my husband swooped in, calmed him down, and convinced him to start drawing some creatures with some prompting. Soon both were happily creating a variety of Pokemon and Pokemon hybrids. Not sure who enjoyed this activity more, my husband or J?

One of J's Pokemon was a powerful green unicorn named Horsey, which you can see him starting to draw below. These blank Pokemon templates sure opened him up to drawing things beyond letters, numbers, planets, and traffic lights. It was wonderful to see his creativity come through!

J's favorite creation was a rather hefty bear named Electrabear. He's a bear Pokemon that uses gold coin energy. Electrabear loves to collect gold coins in his treasure chest. You can see him enthusiastically throwing coins into his treasure chest on the right. J really became quite the storyteller with these homemade Pokemon cards!

This activity really was perfect for everyone in our family. However, the small templates were just too small for four year old K. So I redesigned the template to make jumbo sized Pokemon cards (8.5" x 11" in size) for him and they worked perfectly. I have included both the regular sized and jumbo sized templates in the free template (link to download is at the bottom of this post). K was so proud of his drawing of his favorite Pokemon, Teddiursa, which he paired with his homemade "darkening energy" (also known as black energy depending on which day you ask him about his energy cards). 

While I was taking pictures of our homemade creations, K came in and insisted that I take a picture of his Teddiursa drawing with both energy attached (I had originally only taken a picture of his Teddiursa drawing). So here is his much requested picture!

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