The elephant
The elephant: a free printable coloring page, from age 2. Two fan-shaped ears, a trunk curled into a loop and a spiral horn on the head.
- Recommended age
- Ages 2 and up · 10 to 15 minutes
- Theme
- Animals
A trunk that makes a loop
The baby elephant sits face on, right in the middle of the sheet. Its ears, enormous, open on each side like two fans and almost touch the edges. The trunk comes down at the center, marked with three folds, then rises again, curling on itself: a real loop, the one children spot at once. Two large round eyes topped with arched brows, half a smile on each side of the trunk, and a spiral horn on the crown of the head. The feet, set flat, each show their rounded nails.
The biggest animal a child can name
The elephant holds a place of its own: it is the biggest animal children can name, and they know it. They know the trunk, which serves as hand, nose and hosepipe, and the ears, which the elephant flaps to cool itself. They also know it eats whole branches and drinks enormously. What they often do not know: a calf stays close to its mother for years, and the whole family walks behind the oldest female of the group, the one who remembers the paths.
Three enormous surfaces
The two ears and the body form three enormous surfaces, which between them cover almost the whole page. A two-year-old fills them by sweeping, with no need to aim, and sees the work move on fast — which is exactly what keeps a session from stopping after two minutes. The outline is wide and continuous everywhere except on the folds of the trunk and the nails, which are fine but of no consequence: you can go straight over them. The spiral horn asks for a little more care, so keep it for the end.
Gray without a gray pencil
Few marker sets contain a real gray. Get round the problem: a very pale blue laid lightly gives a perfectly credible elephant, and so does a soft violet. Another option, more fun at this age: leave the body white and color only the inside of the ears, in pink, as on real elephant ears. The page stays light and the drawing reads from a distance. Print on A4 portrait without reducing: at full size, the trunk is nearly half the height of the animal.
A word for the grown-up: ask your child to follow the trunk from start to finish, from the head to the end of the loop. That curving journey is the most useful gesture on the page, and they repeat it afterwards on their own with the marker.
Coloring pages that go with this one
More pages from the same theme, age or season — the ones you print right after.
