About these summer coloring pages
Summer coloring pages bring the beach, the pool and the long sunny days to the kitchen table: sandcastles with flags, ice cream cones stacked three scoops high, watermelon slices, sea turtles and starfish, sailboats, camping tents under the stars and a big smiling sun. Our free printable summer pages include simple suns and ice creams for toddlers, beach and camping scenes for school-age kids and detailed ocean mandalas for teens and adults.
Print them on US Letter or A4 paper, or color them online. Summer pages are handy on rainy vacation days, in a hot afternoon when it is too sunny to play outside, on a long car trip with a clipboard, and in summer camps and libraries that need a quiet activity for a big group.
A summer activity for travel and quiet afternoons
Summer vacations come with a lot of waiting: in the car, at the airport, in a restaurant. A folder of printed summer pages and a small box of colored pencils fits in any bag, and pencils do not melt in a hot car the way crayons can.
Pick pages that match the trip. Heading to the seaside? Bring sandcastles, shells and crabs. Going camping? Pack tents, campfires and forest animals. Kids can color what they are about to see, then compare the page with the real thing when they arrive.
For the middle of the day, when the sun is strongest, a coloring session in the shade is a calm way to rest between swims. Detailed ocean and summer mandala pages give older kids and adults something to do while little ones nap.
Back home, summer pages keep the memories going. Color the lighthouse you visited or the fish you saw while snorkeling, write the place and the date in the corner, and file it away. By the end of August you have a small picture diary of the whole vacation.
Summer pictures to color
These are the scenes kids ask for most in July and August.
Summer pages also help keep young minds busy during the long school break. Count the fish in an underwater scene, sort the shells by shape, or read the names of the sea animals together before coloring them. A page of a sea turtle or a starfish can start a trip to the library for a book about the ocean, and a camping page is a good excuse to look up the constellations you might see from the tent.
- The beach: sandcastles, buckets, shells, umbrellas and waves
- Sea life: sea turtles, starfish, crabs, dolphins and colorful fish
- Summer treats: ice cream, popsicles, watermelon and lemonade
- Camping: tents, campfires, marshmallows on sticks and starry skies
- The pool: swim rings, flip-flops and kids jumping in
- Sunshine: a big smiling sun, sunglasses and sunflowers
Summer facts to share while you color
- In the Northern Hemisphere, summer begins with the summer solstice around June 21, the longest day of the year.
- In the Southern Hemisphere the seasons are reversed, so in Australia Christmas falls in the middle of summer.
- Watermelon is about 92 percent water, which is why it is so refreshing on a hot day.
- Sea turtles crawl onto sandy beaches at night to lay their eggs, and the babies race to the sea when they hatch.
- Sea stars are not fish, and many of them can grow back a lost arm.
- Fireflies make their own light to signal to each other on summer evenings.
- Many crabs walk sideways, because their legs bend best that way.
- Sunflowers can grow taller than an adult in a single summer.
Which summer page for which age
- Toddlers (2–3)
- One big sun, an ice cream cone, a beach ball or a fish with thick lines. Bright yellow and blue crayons go a long way.
- Preschool (3–5)
- Ice cream scoops to count, simple sandcastles, shells and crabs, and kids playing with a bucket and spade.
- Kids (5–10)
- Full beach scenes, underwater worlds with many fish, camping trips and sailboats on the sea. Busy pages like these can last a whole car ride.
- Teens and adults
- Ocean mandalas, detailed coral reefs, tropical flowers and summer landscapes with fine lines, a calm way to unwind on a hot afternoon in the shade.
Coloring tips and color ideas
- Use a bright summer palette: turquoise, sunny yellow, coral, lime green and hot pink.
- Color the sea darker at the bottom of the page and lighter near the top for depth.
- Leave thin white lines on waves and on wet sand for a sparkling look.
- Give each ice cream scoop a different flavor color: pink, brown, mint green and cream.
- Make a sunset sky by blending yellow into orange, then pink and purple.
- Pack colored pencils rather than crayons for car trips: they do not melt in the heat.
Ideas for home, school and parties
- Travel kit: a folder of summer pages and pencils for the car, the plane or the restaurant.
- Summer camp: a coloring corner for quiet time after lunch, when it is too hot to run around outside.
- Vacation journal: color a page for each day of the trip and write one line about it.
- Postcards: color a small summer scene, cut it out and mail it to grandparents, or write "Greetings from the beach" with the free quote maker and color the letters in ocean blues.
- A summer vacation coloring book: upload photos from the beach or the campsite and Coloriki turns them into a coloring book of your own trip.
How to print summer coloring pages
- Open the page you like and press Print it. A PDF opens, sized for US Letter; the A4 PDF is next to it.
- In the print window choose "Fit to page" or 100% scale, and plain white paper. Thicker paper (100 to 120 gsm) is better for markers and paint.
- Print a few copies: kids like to try different colors on the same picture.
- Prefer screens? Press Color it online and color with a tap on a phone, tablet or computer.