Moon and Stars
Toddler · 2–3A crescent moon and twinkling stars for a sleepy night sky. Color the moon and each little star! It is a calm, cozy way to talk about night-time, the sky, and bedtime. Print it on A4 or US Letter, or color it online with tap-to-fill.
A crescent and a scatter
A crescent moon is a shape children see constantly and rarely draw, and it is trickier than it looks — two curves, both bending the same way, with the gap between them making the shape. The stars scattered around it are small and pointed, and they are the fiddly part.
The sky is the largest region on the page and the one that makes the difference. A dark sky with a pale moon looks like night; a white sky does not. It is one of the few pages where the background is doing the most work.
Why the moon changes shape
The moon is always round; we just see different amounts of the lit half as it goes round us. A torch and a ball in a darkened room shows it convincingly in about a minute, and it is worth doing because the crescent on this page otherwise suggests the moon is genuinely that shape.
Frequently asked questions
- Why does the moon look like a crescent?
- The moon is always a sphere — we see only the part lit by the sun, and how much that is depends on where the moon is in its orbit. A torch and a ball in a dark room demonstrates it in a minute.
- What age is this page for?
- Three to six. The moon and sky are easy; the pointed stars need a steadier hand.