Elephant Coloring Page
About This Coloring Page
An elephant is the animal children use to think about size, and a baby elephant lets them think about it twice: enormous compared to them, small compared to its mother. This one is drawn as the baby, which is usually the version a young child picks out of a book without being told to.
The trunk doing something is the point. An elephant standing still is a shape; an elephant spraying an arc of water out of its trunk is an explanation. Children who have been told an elephant drinks and washes through its nose mostly do not believe it until they see it drawn, and the arc of droplets on this page is the part they will ask about first.
The ears and the water are the two colouring problems, and they are different from each other. The ears are two big open areas that reward a steady hand; the droplets are half a dozen tiny separate shapes that reward patience. Having both on one sheet means a child can switch when they get bored rather than stop.
Skills Practiced
How to Use This Coloring Page
- Follow the water with a finger first. Trunk, arc, droplets. Tracing the path before colouring it makes the picture make sense.
- Leave the droplets white or nearly white. It is the first easy lesson in leaving space on purpose, which is a hard idea to teach any other way.
- Count the toes. Elephants have visible toenails on this drawing, and counting them is real one-to-one counting practice hidden inside a picture.