Monkey Coloring Page
About This Coloring Page
The whole of this drawing is one held pose. The monkey is hanging by a single arm with a banana in the other hand, which means it cannot hold on with both — and children work that out immediately, usually by trying it themselves against the back of a chair. A picture that makes a child move is a picture they stay with.
The tail is the line worth pointing at. It curls from the body round into a spiral, and following it in one unbroken stroke is a genuinely useful bit of practice: the continuous loop is the shape handwriting is built out of, and here it is disguised as the funniest part of an animal.
The leaves fill the background completely, which is deliberate. Big, broad, unfussy shapes mean there is always somewhere easy to go when the small careful bits get tiring, and a child can spend as long or as little on them as they want without the page ever looking unfinished.
Skills Practiced
How to Use This Coloring Page
- Follow the tail without lifting. One long curl from the body to the tip. It is the loop that handwriting depends on, and doing it in one go is the point.
- Ask why it only has one hand free. The banana is the answer and it is right there in the picture. Questions a child can solve by looking are the ones that make them look properly.
- Leave the leaves for the tired end. Broad shapes with forgiving edges are where a page should finish, not where it should start.