Song “À la claire fontaine” · the coloring pages on this refrain
The unicorn by the stream
With a flower in its mane, the unicorn stops by a winding stream, next to a rabbit and a squirrel.
- Recommended age
- Ages 4 and up · 20 to 40 minutes
- Themes
- Storybook scenes, Unicorns
A stream that crosses the whole page
A stream comes down from the hills in the background, makes two wide bends and broadens in the foreground, lined with round pebbles. Two fish swim in it, one on the left, one on the right, among little sparkles of water. On the bank, a round little unicorn smiles, with pink cheeks and a crown of flowers around its horn. At its feet, on the left, a squirrel sits; on its right, a rabbit stands among the flowers. At the top right, a bird sings on its branch, and the sun has a face.
The water’s edge from the song
“À la claire fontaine, m’en allant promener” — “by the clear fountain, as I went walking”: the French song begins at the edge of clear water, and that is the setting this page draws. There is even the bird singing in the tree, like the nightingale on the highest branch. For a four-year-old, the page is above all a walk: they name the animals one by one, look for the second fish, count the mushrooms. It reads like a little picture book before it gets colored.
Big areas and flowery edges
The stream and the hills make big, easy areas that fill flat. What takes attention is the edges: the pebbles lined up along the water, the flowers packed into the corners, the garlands of leaves framing the top of the page. At four, the hand already knows how to stop at a line, but not yet at ten small circles in a row: the pebbles can stay white, or all take the same gray.
Start with the water
Coloring the water first sets the tone for the whole page: a light blue, laid lengthwise, in the direction of the current. Everything else falls into place around it: a soft green for the hills in the back, a stronger green for the grass in front, which is enough to give depth. Save the bright colors for the flower crown and the unicorn’s mane: they are then the only things shining in the middle of the landscape.
A word for the grown-up: have your child tell the walk before coloring. “The unicorn walks along the water; who does it meet?” The squirrel, the rabbit, the fish, the bird: each animal found becomes a stop, and your child then colors in the order of their own story.
Coloring pages that go with this one
More pages from the same theme, age or season — the ones you print right after.
