A pencil, a ruler and a glue stick are the first three things a small child ever gets handed at school, so they're worth getting familiar with before day one. Our School Supplies coloring pages turn all of that everyday stuff into simple, chunky line art that a two or three year old can actually finish. Every design is a free printable, available as a PDF in US Letter and A4.
Each of our 47 designs is drawn for under-fives. The shapes are big, the outlines are thick, and there's almost nothing fiddly to work around, which means thick crayons and unsteady hands aren't a problem here.
They suit parents settling a toddler into the idea of school, and preschool teachers who need printables that won't frustrate a room full of three year olds. If your child enjoys these, take a look at our School Bus coloring pages and our Jobs coloring pages too.
Chunky crayon lying across the page ready for coloring
🖍 Coloring Tip:Give every pencil and crayon on the page a different color so the finished pot looks like a real jumbled set, with red, blue and orange all sitting together.
Open backpack with a book and pencil poking out of the top
🖍 Coloring Tip:The pages with blank labels and wrappers are meant to stay empty, so fill them with pink dots or yellow zigzags instead of trying to write letters.
School desk with a book and a pencil resting on top
🖍 Coloring Tip:Safety scissors and glue bottles look best with a gray metal part and a bright green or orange handle, which gives your child one small detail to finish with.
5 easy activities using School Supplies coloring pages
Everything here uses things you already have at home or in the classroom cupboard. Scissors, glue and whatever crayons are in the box will cover all five ideas.
Cover a real pencil pot
The page showing the pencil pot with three chunky pencils sticking out of it makes a neat wrap for an actual jar or tin. Your child colors it, then you tape it around a clean food tin so the pot on paper becomes a pot they can use.
Sitting it on a desk with real pencils in it gives the artwork a job to do.
You'll need:
The pencil pot page
A clean tin can or an empty jar
Crayons or coloring pens
Sticky tape
How to do it:
Color the pencil pot page and trim off the white edges
Check the tin has no sharp rim, and cover it with tape if it does
Wrap the page around the tin and tape the overlap at the back
Fill it with real pencils and crayons
Make a second one for a grandparent's desk while the crayons are still out.
Play a supply matching game
Print two copies of six single supply pages, color them, then cut them out to make a set of matching pairs. Lay them face down and take turns flipping two at a time to find a match.
It works as a naming game as much as a memory game, because your child says the word each time they turn a card over.
You'll need:
Two printed copies each of six supply pages, such as the pencil, ruler, eraser and glue stick designs
Crayons
Scissors
How to do it:
Color both copies of each supply in roughly the same shades so the pairs match
Cut them out into cards of a similar size
Shuffle and lay them face down in a grid
Take turns flipping two cards and keeping any pair that matches
Start with four pairs for a toddler and add more as they get quicker.
String up a supply garland
Cut out a run of colored pencils, crayons and scissors and peg them along a length of string for a quick classroom or bedroom decoration. The big open shapes on these pages cut out easily, which matters if your child is doing the cutting.
Hang it above a craft table or across a window where it catches the light.
You'll need:
Eight to twelve colored supply pages
Scissors
String and small pegs, or tape
How to do it:
Color the pages and cut around each supply
Stretch a length of string between two hooks or door handles
Peg the cutouts along the string, alternating tall shapes with wide ones
Leave a gap at one end so new pieces can be added later
Take it down and swap it for a new set at the end of each term.
Make tags for coat hooks and cubbies
Small children find their own peg far more easily when there's a picture on it. Color a supply page, cut the shape out, and tape it above the hook or on the front of the cubby.
Give each child a different supply so nobody has to read a name to work out where their coat goes.
You'll need:
One supply page per child
Scissors
Sticky tape or sticky tack
How to do it:
Let each child pick and color their own supply shape
Cut around the outline
Tape it above the coat hook or onto the cubby front
Point it out on the first morning so they know it's theirs
It saves a surprising amount of time at home time.
Turn the sticky note page into a real notepad cover
The design with the top sheet curling up at the corner works nicely glued to the front of a plain notebook. Once it's colored and stuck down, your child has a book that looks like theirs rather than one from a packet of five.
The chalk box and safety scissors pages work just as well if they'd rather use those.
You'll need:
The sticky note pad page, or another supply design
A plain notebook
Glue stick
Clear tape for covering
How to do it:
Color the page, then trim it to the size of the notebook cover
Spread glue across the whole back of the paper, not just the corners
Smooth it onto the cover from the middle outward
Cover the front with clear tape so it survives being carried around
A second copy on the back cover finishes it off neatly.
There's no lead in a pencil at all. The gray stuff inside is graphite mixed with clay, and it only got called lead because people hundreds of years ago dug it up and thought they'd found a strange soft kind of metal.
