Haunted House Coloring Page
About This Coloring Page
Halloween is the first holiday most children meet that is supposed to be a little frightening, and how frightening it is allowed to be varies enormously between families. This house is drawn well inside the safe end of that range: crooked, but smiling moon, tidy pumpkin, bats that look like small birds. Nothing on the page needs explaining away at bedtime.
Structurally it is a shape sheet in costume. Triangle roofs, square windows, arched door, round moon, and a path made of rectangles going up to the gate. A child colouring it is sorting shapes for twenty minutes without being asked to sort anything, which is the version of that exercise that actually holds attention.
The windows are the decision point. Left white, the house is empty; filled dark, somebody is definitely home. It is a real choice with a real consequence, and children who are given it tend to want to explain their answer, which is worth more than the colouring.
Skills Practiced
How to Use This Coloring Page
- Count the windows and the bats. Two small counts on one page, and the bats are spread out enough that a child has to keep track.
- Decide about the windows before starting. Dark means somebody is home, white means the house is empty. Ask which one they want and why.
- Follow the path from the gate to the door. Tracing a route with a finger before colouring it is the same skill as following a line of text.