The spider
The spider: a free printable coloring page, from age 4. A big round belly, eight broad legs, two pointed ears and a small striped horn.
- Recommended age
- Ages 4 and up · 20 to 40 minutes
- Theme
- Little bugs
A spider face on, ears included
This spider is drawn face on, right in the middle of the page. Its head is a circle set at the top, with two pointed ears, a curled lock on the forehead and a striped horn between the ears. Its eyes are two large black ovals, each pierced with a white dot that makes them shine; below them, a small mouth smiles. Its belly is a big empty circle, the largest surface on the sheet. Eight legs come out of it, four on the left and four on the right, drawn like rounded tubes folded into two or three pieces.
Eight legs, not six
A spider is not an insect: it has eight legs where insects have six, and its body has only two parts instead of three. That is the first thing to point out, because it can be seen on the drawing and counting is enough to check it. Many children are a little afraid of spiders before ever meeting one up close. A round spider, with ears and a smile, is a gentle way to start: you color it, you find it sweet, and the fear loses ground.
A big belly, and sixteen leg segments
The big circle of the belly takes up almost a third of the page. That is where you start, and you can go at it boldly. It is the legs that make the work: eight of them, cut into two or three segments each, which on their own are more than half the sheet. They stay wide, close to a centimetre between their two lines, and fill in with a marker without aiming — but you have to come back to them sixteen times, and that is where patience counts. The stripes of the horn and the inside of the ears can be skipped without the sheet suffering.
Two colors are enough
Try a single color for the belly and another for the eight legs: the drawing reads immediately, and the child has only two decisions to make. The legs also lend themselves to stripes, every other segment colored and the rest left white, but that is more within reach at 4 or 5. For the horn, save the brightest color in the case: it is small and deserves to be seen. Paper of 120 gsm keeps the marker from going through on the large surfaces.
A word for the grown-up: count the legs together as they are colored, one by one, out loud. By the time you reach eight, your child will have learned something true about spiders, and will have finished the sheet without noticing.
Coloring pages that go with this one
More pages from the same theme, age or season — the ones you print right after.
