Kangaroo
Preschool · 3–5A mother kangaroo sitting on her strong tail with a baby joey peeking out of her pouch. The two animals give this page a story, and children almost always color the joey first. There is a nice range of shapes here — long ears, powerful back legs, small front paws — without any of them being fiddly. Coloring a kangaroo is a natural way to talk about Australia, about animals that carry their babies with them, and about how far a kangaroo can jump. Try hopping across the room together afterward. Print it, or color it online with the paint bucket.
Built for jumping
Everything about the shape explains the movement: enormous back legs, small front ones, and a thick tail held out behind for balance. The tail is nearly as long as the body and is the part children tend to under-estimate when drawing one themselves.
The pouch is drawn on the body and is the detail most children look for first.
A joey in the pouch
A newborn kangaroo is about the size of a jellybean and crawls into the pouch to finish developing. It stays there for months. That is a striking enough fact that most children want it repeated, and it is the clearest example of what being a marsupial means.
Frequently asked questions
- How big is a baby kangaroo when it is born?
- About the size of a jellybean. It crawls into the pouch and stays there for months while it finishes developing.
- What age is this page for?
- Four to eight. Large limbs and a long tail, with a face that needs more care.
