Book
Toddler · 2–3A closed book, ready for story time. Color the cover and the pages! It is a lovely way to talk about reading, stories, and books we love. Print it on A4 or US Letter, or color it online with tap-to-fill.
Colouring a book about books
There is something quietly useful about a child colouring a picture of a book: it makes the object itself worth attention at a point when most children treat books as things adults hold. The cover and the pages are separate regions here, which is a small anatomy lesson — a book has an outside and an inside, and they are different.
It is also a good page for a child who is about to start nursery or school, where books are handled constantly. Talk about how a book opens, which way the pages turn, where the front is. Print concepts like these are learned long before reading and are among the better predictors of how smoothly reading starts.
Making it their book
Once the cover is coloured, ask what this book is about and write the title they give you on it. A child who has named a book, even an imaginary one, is doing something closer to authorship than colouring. It works particularly well with children who say they do not like books.
Frequently asked questions
- What are print concepts?
- The mechanics of how books work — front and back, which way pages turn, that text runs left to right and carries the meaning. Children pick them up from being read to, and they arrive well before letter knowledge.
- How can colouring help a reluctant reader?
- By making the book an object they own rather than one they are handed. Colouring a cover and naming the story shifts a child from audience to author, which changes how they approach the real ones.