Decorated Easter Egg Coloring Page

About this coloring page

One large egg standing on grass, divided into wide bands of pattern with stripes and dots. This is a pattern page more than a picture, and it works like the palette rows on our other drawings: a child is handed a structure and only has to decide color. That removes the hardest part of coloring for a young child, which is not staying inside the lines but working out what to do at all. The bands run across the egg rather than down it, so alternating two colors produces something that looks deliberately designed with no planning at all. It is also the fastest page here to make look finished, since the egg fills the sheet and there is almost no background. Printed at A4 the bands are each wide enough for a chunky crayon to travel along without straying, which matters more than it sounds when a four-year-old is pressing hard. Print several: the same drawing colored four different ways makes a better display than four different drawings. Print the easter egg coloring sheet on card if the finished eggs are going to be cut out, since colored paper curls as it dries.

Color suggestions

• Two colors alternating down the bands
• Every band a different color
• Pastels for a traditional look
• Green grass, pale sky

Did you know?

• Pysanky, the Ukrainian tradition of writing on eggs with wax and dye, builds the pattern up in layers from lightest to darkest, so the design is planned entirely in reverse before the first color goes on.
• A hen's eggshell has around seven thousand tiny pores in it, which is how a developing chick breathes through the shell and why eggs pick up strong smells in a fridge.