Why use animal coloring pages?
Animal coloring pages are a great way to teach your child about animals, their habits, where they are found in the wild and what they eat while also expressing their creativity. Kids often have a lot of pent up creative energy; providing them with animal coloring pages gives them some structure and direction while allowing them to express their creativity. It also gives them a fun activity to pass the time.
How can you get more from your animal coloring pages?
One of the best ways to get more from animal coloring pages is to combine the creativity and fun of coloring with education. Take the time to introduce your child to the animals they will get to color. Teach them about the animals. Give them a mini-lesson about the animal, its habits, geography of where it is located and what it eats. If you have a zoo nearby, go to the zoo and look at the real animal. The more they learn about the animal, the more excited they will be about coloring pages of it.
Make your own animal coloring pages coloring book
Put animal coloring pages together to make a book is a great tool for learning and creativity. Printing out a group of animal coloring pages and putting them in a folder or binder, or even just stapling them together, can be really fun for a child. A custom-made book of coloring pages makes a great, portable activity.
Print animal coloring pages off the Internet
There are plenty of sites where coloring pages of animals, as well as other things, may be found. Choose sites that give you actual representations of the animals as animal coloring pages as opposed to a cartoon version of them. They are more educational, and often more fun, for the kids because they get to learn about the animals that way. A few good sites for animal coloring pages are included with the links below:
www.nationalgeographic.com/coloringbook/
www.coloring.ws/animals.html
www.enchantedlearning.com/coloring/
When you are online, you can also do online coloring pages using the paintbrush function to paint digital coloring pages. While not as rewarding for kids as using actual crayons and paper, for the more electronically inclined child it can still be a lot of fun.
Which animals are best to use?
One of the biggest choices you have when printing animal coloring pages is what types of animals to print. Of course if your child is interested in a specific animal, the decision becomes much easier. However, you could print a variety, including pets, African safari animals, jungle animals, dogs and horses. There are hundreds of animals to choose from, so narrowing the choice down can make it a little less overwhelming.