Coloring pages are more than just a fun activity; they are a valuable resource for developing a wide range of skills in young learners. By incorporating these five methods into your classroom, you can enhance creativity, reinforce learning concepts, and create meaningful, personalized experiences for your students. Read on for 5 ways to use coloring pages in the early childhood classroom and at home.

Coloring Pages available exclusively with an Experience Preschool Curriculum subscription

5 Ways to Use Coloring Pages

Coloring pages get a bad rap, but they’re not all bad! Children often find coloring calming and relaxing making them excellent to use for table activities during drop off and pick up times. Don’t force children to color, and DO offer other creative activities. Incorporate them into the curriculum and routines as appropriate. Experience Curriculum supports process art and values the creative process. The Experience Preschool curriculum includes 20 themed coloring pages each month in addition to Make and Play and Invitation to Create art experiences.

Tracing Coloring Pages

Tracing is an excellent way to develop fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination in young children. Here’s how you can use coloring pages for tracing:

• Select Simple Designs: Choose coloring pages with clear, bold outlines that are easy for little hands to follow.
• Laminate Pages: Laminate the coloring pages or place them in plastic sleeves so they can be used multiple times with dry-erase markers.
• Trace on a Light Pad: Tape the coloring page and a piece of paper over a light pad. The child can trace the design and then coloring as desired.
• Tape to the Window: A large door or window can offer space for multiple children to trace a picture at the same time. Take the coloring page and a piece of paper over top. Standing and working on a vertical surface provides an excellent opportunity to develop shoulder, arm, and hand strength as well as bilaterial coordination.
• Clipboard Tracing: Alternatively clip a coloring page to a clipboard and layer a piece of tracing paper over top for the child to trace.
• Provide Tracing Tools: Offer a variety of tracing tools such as colored pencils, crayons, and markers. Encourage children to trace over the lines to create their own version of the picture.

Coloring Pages available exclusively with a Experience Preschool Curriculum subscription

Add Coloring Pages to a Center

Centers are an integral part of early childhood education, offering focused areas for different types of learning. Integrate coloring pages into your centers to enhance creativity and engagement:

• Art Center: Provide a selection of coloring pages along with crayons, markers, and colored pencils. Encourage children to express their creativity by coloring the pages in their own unique way.
• Literacy Center: Pair coloring pages with related books or stories. For example, if your theme is animals, include coloring pages of various animals and books about animal habitats. Experience Curriculum coloring pages include English and Spanish titles to develop vocabulary and provide opportunities for connecting pictures and words.
• STEAM Center: Add Experience Curriculum’s themed coloring pages to STEAM Stations! Offering multiple materials, tools and resources to STEAM Stations offer multiple opportunties for children to engage in ways that appeal to each child.

Color, Cut and Glue to My Little Journals

Incorporate coloring pages into My Little Journals with these steps:

• Mini Art Projects: After children color their pages, have them cut out sections or shapes and glue them into their journals. This not only reinforces fine motor skills but also adds a personal touch to their journals. Young children are not always able to draw an animal like a lion in their journals, but they can color, cut and glue a lion in their journal.
  📚Read Benefits of Collage Art
• Storytelling: Encourage children to use the coloring page cutouts to create stories in their journals. They can draw additional elements around the cutouts or write simple sentences to go along with their pictures.
• Themed Coloring Pages: Use the Experience Curriculum themed coloring pages that align with the current unit or topic. This helps children make connections between what they are learning and their personal creations.

Paint Coloring Pages with Watercolors

Adding watercolors to coloring pages can transform them into vibrant, beautiful pieces of art. Here’s how to make the most of this technique:

• Switch it Up: Not all children enjoy coloring so try offering simple watercolor paint pans for the chidren to paint their coloring pages. Children experiment with and learn about the process of painting – dipping the brush in water, selecting a color, painting, rinsing and repeating. Painting with watercolors is engaging and often not offered to children in the creative process.
• Layer Art: Glue the coloring page to a piece of colored construction paper or cardstock to provide a thicker page for children to paint on that’s less likely to rip if they get too much water on the page.
• More Painting Tools: Offer cotton swaps for painting with tempera, do a dot painters or ice painting.

Make a Book with Coloring Pages

Creating a book from coloring pages develops a sense of accomplishment and pride. Follow these steps to create a book:

• Individual Books: As children complete pages, add them to a booklet.
• Collaborative Effort: Children chooses a coloring page to complete. Once all the pages are colored, bind them together to create a book.
• Personalization: Encourage children to add their names and a short description or story to their pages. This makes the book a personalized collection of their work.
• Classroom Library: Place the finished book in your classroom library. Children will love seeing their work displayed and will enjoy reading the book with their peers.

📚READ 5 Ways to Explore Creativity with Toddlers

Enjoy these 5 Ways to Use Coloring Pages with your early learners! Don’t miss using the themed coloring pages from Experience Preschool curriculum. Find them in Member Resources.

---

Experience Preschool is a hands-on learning system inspiring growth in all developmental areas, including social-emotional, physical, language and cognitive development.