The starry present
The starry present: a free printable coloring page, from age 4. A square parcel with a unicorn’s face, eyes closed, a big bow, and five stars around it.
- Recommended age
- Ages 4 and up · 20 to 40 minutes
- Theme
- Party time
- Season
- Birthdays
A parcel with a face
The parcel is square with rounded corners, and it has a face: two closed eyes drawn as arcs, three lashes on each, a small smiling mouth. Above it two pointed ears and a spiral horn stick out, with a lock of mane falling on either side over the edge of the box. Lower down, a wide ribbon crosses the parcel, with a two-loop bow, a square in the middle and two tails cut in a V. Five stars float around it: three with five points, two shaped like four-pointed sparks.
An object that became somebody
Give a parcel eyes and children understand at once what it means: the object becomes somebody. This one has its eyes closed and is smiling. It is waiting, it is not looking, it does not yet know it is going to be unwrapped. At about 4, the ambiguity is great fun: is it the present, or the one receiving it? The horn and the ears supply the answer most often heard at home — it is a unicorn, and she is asleep in her parcel until the party.
Why from age 4
The large surfaces stay easy: the body of the parcel, the ribbon, the two loops of the bow. What calls for a steadier hand are the small pieces — the six lashes, the inside of the two ears, the rings of the horn, the locks of the mane, and the five stars, the smallest of which fits into a two-centimetre square once the sheet is printed. At about 4, a child holds the pencil well enough to fill them without going through them, and takes to it. Earlier, those areas would simply be skipped.
One color for the stars
The idea that changes everything here: give the five stars a single bold color, used nowhere else. They stop being stray marks around the parcel and become a rhythm, like lights switched on around the face. For the mane, try three neighboring shades, lock after lock, rather than one: that is the detail that makes grown-ups look twice. The eyes are already drawn — two arcs and their lashes, nothing to fill.
A word for the grown-up: have the stars counted aloud before starting, there are five. Counting then filling, in that order, adds ten minutes to the session and turns the background into a small hunt for details.
Coloring pages that go with this one
More pages from the same theme, age or season — the ones you print right after.
