The night before, most of the worry belongs to the grown-ups. Our First Day of School coloring pages are made for the week or two beforehand, when talking through what's about to happen does more good than anything else. Every design is a free printable, downloadable as a PDF in US Letter or A4.
All 53 pages are drawn for under-fives, with big simple shapes and thick outlines. They follow the whole day in order - getting dressed, saying goodbye at the gate, meeting the teacher, finding a first friend, and being collected at the end.
Parents find them useful for walking a nervous toddler through what the morning will look like, and preschool teachers use them in the settling-in sessions before term starts. If your child likes these, our School Bus coloring pages and Jobs coloring pages cover more of the same ground.
🖍 Coloring Tip:The sign boards, name stickers and height charts are all left blank on purpose, so let your child fill them with orange spots and green swirls instead of letters.
5 easy activities using First Day of School coloring pages
These all use paper, scissors and glue, and most take less than ten minutes. A couple of them are worth keeping afterward.
Make the sign for the real photo
The large blank sign board with the wooden handle is drawn to be used in an actual first-day photograph. Your child colors the border and the stars, you write the year or the grade across the middle, and they hold it up on the doorstep in the morning.
It gives a nervous child something to do with their hands while the camera comes out.
You'll need:
The blank sign board page
Crayons or coloring pens
Thick paper or card
A marker pen
How to do it:
Print the sign onto the thickest paper your printer takes
Let your child color the frame, the handle and the stars
Write the year or the class in large letters across the middle
Tape a ruler or a stick to the back if you want it stiffer
Keep it somewhere safe, because you'll want it again next September.
Put the morning in the right order
Print the getting-ready pages, cut them out and let your child arrange them in the order the morning will actually happen. Shoes, breakfast, backpack, goodbye, gate.
Doing this a few times in the week beforehand takes a lot of the mystery out of it.
You'll need:
Five or six pages showing the morning routine
Scissors
Sticky tack or a strip of tape
How to do it:
Color the pages and cut each one down to a card
Shuffle them and lay them out face up
Ask your child to put them in the order the morning goes
Stick the finished row on the wall at child height
Move a peg along the row each morning so they can see how far through they are.
Make a pocket friend for the first morning
The page with the child hugging a teddy bear can be shrunk down, colored and cut out to make a small paper friend that fits in a pocket. Some children hold onto it, others just like knowing it's there.
Print it at about a quarter size so it tucks away easily.
You'll need:
The teddy bear hug page, printed small
Crayons
Scissors
Clear tape to make it sturdier
How to do it:
Print the page reduced to a quarter of a sheet
Color it in and cut around the outline
Cover both sides with clear tape so it survives a pocket
Slip it into a coat pocket on the first morning
Make two if there's a sibling starting on the same day.
Start a real height chart on the door frame
The height chart page can be colored, cut into a tall strip and taped to a door frame at home. Mark where your child reaches on the first day of school and add a new mark every term after that.
The lines and stars on the page are left blank so you can write the dates yourself.
You'll need:
The height chart page
Crayons and a marker pen
Scissors and tape
How to do it:
Color the stars and lines and trim the page into a tall strip
Tape it to a door frame with the bottom edge on the floor
Stand your child against it and mark the top of their head
Write the date beside the mark
Add a new page above it once they outgrow the first one.
Color the same page twice, ten months apart
Print two copies of the new school shoes page. Your child colors one in the week before they start, and the second one on the last day of the school year.
Putting them side by side shows how much has changed in a way a photograph doesn't quite manage.
You'll need:
Two copies of the same page
Crayons
An envelope or folder to store the first one
How to do it:
Color the first copy before term starts and write the date on the back
Put it somewhere safe and forget about it
Color the second copy on the last day of the year
Stick them side by side on the fridge
It works with any page in the collection, so pick whichever one your child likes best.
In Germany, children starting school get a Schultuete, a giant paper cone almost as tall as they are, filled with pencils, sweets and small presents. They carry it into school on the very first morning, and the tradition is over two hundred years old.
There's plenty more to print before that first morning - head back to our full Back to School coloring pages collection.
Words to know about the First Day of School
A handful of school words your child will start hearing in September, worth learning early.
Orientation - a short visit before school starts, to see the room and meet the teacher.
Principal - the person in charge of the whole school, not just one class.
Semester - one of the parts the school year is split into, with a holiday at the end.
Coatroom - the room or corner where everyone leaves their coats and bags each morning.
Dismissal - the moment at the end of the day when children are let out to go home.
Substitute - a teacher who takes the class when the usual teacher can't be there.
Coloring Pages FAQ
Can I post our completed coloring pages on social media?
Yes - feel free to post your finished artwork, and you can tag us if you like.
Do you add new printables throughout the year?
Yes - we add new coloring pages and categories throughout the year.
Do I have to sign up to download these coloring pages?
No - you can download or print without creating an account.
How can I stop the page from printing cropped?
Choose the correct paper size (US Letter or A4) and select “Fit to Page” or “Fit to printable area,” then tweak scale/margins if needed.
Should I use cardstock or regular printer paper?
Use regular paper for crayons and pencils, and choose cardstock or thicker paper if you’re using markers or paint.
