Penguin on the Ice Coloring Page

About this coloring page

A penguin standing on an ice block with two small fish beside it. Penguins are almost pre-colored, which sounds like it would make a dull page and does the opposite: because the body is black and white and the beak and feet are orange, a child gets a picture that looks strikingly finished having made almost no decisions. That is exactly right for a three-year-old who is not ready to choose. The chest is separated from the back, so the black and white happens without any careful edging. The ice block is a large pale shape best left white or given the faintest blue, and the fish are the small reward at the end. Printed at A4 the penguin fills the height of the sheet with a clean margin. If a child wants to color the sea behind it, a marker will buckle ordinary copier paper across an area that size, so print on something heavier if that is the plan. Printed as a penguin coloring sheet on card, the finished bird cuts out and stands up, which is what most children want to do with it anyway.

Color suggestions

• Black back, white chest
• Orange beak and feet
• Palest blue ice
• Deep blue sea behind

Did you know?

• Emperor penguins dive deeper than any other bird, recorded beyond five hundred metres, and can stay under for more than twenty minutes on a single breath.
• Male gentoo penguins court by searching the colony for the smoothest pebble they can find and presenting it to a female. Good pebbles are scarce enough that penguins steal them from each other's nests.