Animal Coloring Pages

About these animal coloring pages

Animals are the first thing most children ask for, and they are the hardest to get right: too much detail and the page becomes a grey mess that nobody can colour inside. Every animal here is drawn with a bold closed outline and only enough interior line to make it readable, so a crayon fits in every region.

What people use them for

• A quiet activity that needs no preparation
• Party bags and busy bags, printed four to a page
• Classroom early-finisher work
• Talking about animals with a toddler while they colour

Getting a good print

• Paper weight matters more than the printer. 120 gsm or heavier stops markers bleeding through; ordinary 80 gsm copy paper is fine for pencils and crayons.
• Print at 100%. Scaling thins the outlines, which is the opposite of what a young child needs.
• Black and white only. The page is pure outline, so a monochrome printer costs nothing in quality and very little in toner.
• Laminate for reuse if you are using dry-wipe markers with a group.

More to print

The full colouring page tool has every set together, along with mandala patterns and a converter that turns your own photo into outlines. For younger children the name tracing worksheet and the maze generator build the same pencil control.