Learning to explore the creative side of education is just as important as any other subject; having lots of 1st Grade Coloring Pages on-hand is a great way to let students have fun while building new muscle memory and capacity for creativity.  

When coloring and doing other crafts and activities, children develop important skills like fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and color recognition. That’s why I’ve curated a fun collection of 1st Grade Coloring Pages in printable and digital forms below.

In partnership with Teach Simple, whose marketplace is full of educational materials created by actual teachers (plus 50% of all revenues go to them), I found educator-created 1st grade coloring sheets that cover pretty much any topic you’re teaching in class or your 1st grader is interested in. You can download and print them to use in your classroom or with your child at home.

Table of Contents

How Do You Teach an Elementary Color Wheel?

When it’s time for arts and crafts, many teachers wonder where to begin. I recommend starting with the basics, by introducing your students to a  printable color wheel worksheet. With a worksheet like this, students can follow your example (the worksheet is labeled where each color belongs), or they can read the colors themselves. 

The final product will be a beautiful and helpful color wheel that students can refer to in the future when doing creative projects. It will help them understand the difference between warm and cool colors, color families, and complementary colors. 

Once students have their grasp of the color wheel, you can reinforce the concept with students as they color the pages below in class.

The Best 1st Grade Printable Coloring Sheets

Seasons and Weather Coloring Sheets

Color All the Things: Fall Vibes Coloring Pages

These fall and Thanksgiving inspired coloring pages are hand-drawn, fun, adorable, and appropriate for all ages. There are a total of 8 different pages that you can use to inspire your 1st graders to start thinking about the fall season while coloring.

Color All The Things: Summer Vacay Coloring Pages

These summer vacation inspired coloring pages are hand-drawn and full of plants, wildlife, and those summer break feelings. These are great end-of-year coloring pages to get kids thinking about their summer plans.

My End of Year Memories!

This is a great end-of-year coloring and drawing page to get students to reflect back on their year and color some of their favorite memories of 1st grade. 

Color All The Things: Rainbows Coloring Pages

What 1st grader doesn’t love rainbows? Use some of these abstract rainbow coloring pages to reinforce the concept of ROYGBIV and the colors of the rainbows or the science behind how rainbows are created in nature.

Coloring Pages About People and Animals

Meet My Family

Family is so important, and this printable coloring book will help children learn more about theirs! Children will trace and draw, get practice using a writing tool, explore the fun of creative expression, and learn about family all at the same time.

Feelings and Emotions Coloring Pages

This coloring set includes 30 pages of feelings and emotions coloring sheets with options for all genders so your students can learn as they color. Some pages have one emotion and some pages have up to four emotions or feelings per page so they can learn how some feelings relate to one another.

Pictures to Color: People and Places

This coloring set includes 1 PDF with 32 ready-to-print pages. The subjects are geared especially for early childhood curriculum and suggestions for use offer many creative tips and ideas to get 1st graders thinking about people and how they get around to different places.

Llama Coloring Book

This super-cute coloring book with llamas on each sheet works great as a full coloring book or for some individual coloring pages during quiet times. It includes 26 printable coloring pages in a PDF format.

My Animal Coloring Book

These cute animal coloring pages are great as a whole coloring book or for individual use! The animal coloring sheets include both singular animals or paired animals with 30 pages in total. Each page includes the name of the animal as well.

I Like to Draw Funny Faces

Children can learn to trace and draw, practice using a writing tool, and explore the fun of creative expression with these funny face sheets. This item includes a 12-page printable packet.

Community Helpers Coloring Pages

Teach 1st graders the importance of our community helpers with a fun coloring project. There are 65 different helpers and each page features a unique community helper/job/occupation. 

Community helpers and occupations include a police officer, mail carrier, paramedic, doctor, nurse, electrician, surgeon, gardener, architect, cashier, police dog, reporter, florists, construction worker, scientist, soldier, farmer, waiter, pilot and many more!

Letters, Numbers, & More Activities and Coloring Pages

Color My Day Fun Activity Book

Children can create and expand their imaginations while learning about numbers while coloring! With 20 pages of coloring and activity fun, children will keep busy and learn important lessons with hidden pictures, dot-to-dots, pictures to color, letter and number mazes, puzzles, skill-building games, and more. This set includes a 21-page printable packet.

Color by Color Coloring Activity

This packet is designed to offer a fun, engaging, and educational way to practice color recognition and pencil grasp during the school year. This packet is low-prep; simply print the pages you want your students to work on. 

There are 17 coloring worksheets included within the packet. For this activity your students will color according to the color dots on each picture.

Bursting With Fun Mini Coloring Book

With 20 pages of coloring and activities, children will keep busy and learn important lessons through letter mazes, line tracing, and coloring.  This includes a 21-page printable packet.

Color All the Things Volume 1

This coloring book currently has 63 hand-drawn and hand-lettered pages with fun sayings and abstract designs. It includes a 13-page printable packet with activities as well. These are great to hand out when 1st graders need some quiet and creative time or if a child finishes an assignment early.

I Like to Color, Trace, and Learn

Children can learn to create and expand their imaginations by coloring pages about specific letters. With 20 pages of coloring and activity fun, children will find hidden pictures, trace dot-to-dots, color pictures associated with letters, conduct letter and number mazes, work on puzzles, and more.

Color Flip Booklets

This packet is designed to offer a fun, engaging, and educational way to practice color recognition, scissor skills, and pencil grip during the school year. 

There are 12 color booklets included within the packet. Instruct students to color the pictures and cut out the four bottom squares. Staple the pictures to the book page to create the flip booklet.

Rainy Day Coloring Fun

Children can create and expand their imaginations while coloring with these pages that showcase numbers 1-10 and mini-story books. With 20 pages of coloring and activities, children will keep busy and learn important lessons at the same time. This is a 21-page printable packet.

Go Wild with Coloring

Another set of fun coloring activities focused around letters and letter sounds to reinforce concepts you’re teaching in reading and language arts. 

Mandala Gnomes Coloring Book

Your students will love this Gnomes Coloring Book full of mandala creations. Use it for morning work, early finishers, or to practice fine motor skills. It is a 26-page PDF coloring book that comes with a cover page to create a book when students have finished coloring the pages at the end of the year.

How Do You Make a Homemade Coloring Book?

If you want to make a coloring book with your child or have your students make their own coloring book for a class project, you can set them up with a few easy steps. 

Choose any of the above printable coloring sets and print them out for the students. You can hole-punch the sheets and put them in a binder or tie them with string. You can also print them out in half-page sizes and fold them in half creating a small pamphlet type booklet. You may want to staple or use string to bind the middle of the book. 

If this isn’t your cup of tea, try printing out this Color Flip Booklet; it’s simple for you and super exciting for students to put together! This unique take on typical 1st grade coloring pages will have students geared up to color and create their flip book to take home.

About the Author

Jen Skolsky has a background in English, Psychology, and Creative Writing. She has taught for many years in international education, including ESL for all ages, middle school literature, speech and debate; high school AP Psychology, AP Language, AP Literature; university level Academic Writing, and Chinese Medicine Theory. She now works in marketing and book publishing.