Song “Au clair de la lune” · the coloring pages on this refrain
The window on the moon
Leaning on his windowsill with the little unicorn, Pierrot gazes at the smiling full moon as a quill feather drifts by.
- Recommended age
- Ages 4 and up · 20 to 40 minutes
- Themes
- Storybook scenes, Unicorns
A window above the clouds
Pierrot leans on the sill of his wide-open window, a round hat with a pompom on his head and a ruffled collar around his neck. On the sill beside him stands a small starry unicorn. The window opens straight onto the sky: across from it, a round full moon smiles, surrounded by rays, and a big feather floats in the night. Below, the tiled roof disappears into the clouds. Stars and little dots shine everywhere.
The quill to write a word
In “Au clair de la lune”, the French lullaby, someone knocks at Pierrot’s door to borrow his quill, “pour écrire un mot” — “to write a word”. Here it is, that quill, floating in the open sky as if waiting for someone to come and get it. Pierrot, meanwhile, gazes at the moon with his friend the unicorn. It is a night page with nothing scary in it: the moon is smiling, the sky is full of stars, and everyone is at the window.
One big circle and lots of small ones
The moon is the biggest area on the page, with a few craters and stars set on it. The rest is shared between the clouds, the window and Pierrot, which offer medium, well-closed areas. The stars and dots scattered across the sky are very small: at four, they can be colored with a single touch or left white. The roof tiles form a regular grid, nice to fill square by square.
Night around, light in the middle
To make a real night, color the sky dark blue, going around the stars, the moon and the feather, which stay light. It takes longer, but the effect is striking; if it is too much for the hand, a light blue works too. The moon is colored pale yellow, its rays a brighter yellow. Pierrot is traditionally dressed in white: his clothes can stay light, with only the hat colored.
A word for the grown-up: sing “Au clair de la lune” up to “prête-moi ta plume” (“lend me your quill”), then ask where the quill is in the picture. Children find it quickly, and then like to color it first, as if giving it back to Pierrot.
Coloring pages that go with this one
More pages from the same theme, age or season — the ones you print right after.
