Daniel Tiger Coloring Pages

Daniel Tiger's world is made of small, everyday moments, and these Daniel Tiger coloring pages keep to that: a trip on the trolley, a visit to the doctor, a new baby in the family, a birthday, a rainy day.

At home, Daniel waves from the front door of his wooden house above a WELCOME mat, brushes his teeth standing on a step stool, falls asleep in bed hugging his toy tiger Tigey, and curls up in a big armchair with Tigey under one arm. He kneads dough with Dad Tiger, pushes his baby sister Margaret in her stroller, waters the tomatoes in a striped apron and plants a seed in a paper cup on the windowsill. He gives a puppy a bath in a tin tub full of suds, and hosts a tea party in a paper crown for his teddy bears.

Out in the neighborhood, he rides the trolley with its bell on the roof, carries his lunch box up the steps of the schoolhouse, sits on the exam table at the doctor, feeds hay to a goat at the petting farm, swings high in the playground, rides the carousel with his friends, packs a picnic, paints at an easel and climbs onto a toy fire engine in a firefighter helmet. The seasons each get a page: splashing in puddles, raking leaves, sledding down a hill, building a snow tiger, collecting shells at the beach, and sharing an umbrella with a little turtle in the rain.

His friends are here too. Katerina Kittycat skips down a garden path in her tutu, builds a block tower and shares grapes on a picnic blanket. O the Owl peeks out of his tree in his round glasses, splashes in the rain and rides on Daniel's shoulder across a log. Prince Wednesday zooms down a slide by the castle wall, and Miss Elaina plays dress up with Katerina in floppy hats. The whole gang gathers for Daniel's birthday party under a HAPPY BIRTHDAY banner. There is also a mandala of trolleys, sweaters and daisies, and a border of tiger tails around a tree.

The neighborhood came from Mister Rogers

Parents who grew up in the United States may recognize more than they expect. Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, which began in 2012, was made by the company Fred Rogers founded, and Daniel is the son of Daniel Striped Tiger, the shy puppet who lived in a clock in Mister Rogers' Neighborhood from 1968. The friends are the next generation too. Katerina is the daughter of Henrietta Pussycat, O the Owl is the nephew of X the Owl, Prince Wednesday is the son of King Friday, and Miss Elaina is the daughter of Lady Elaine Fairchilde. The trolley that carries Daniel around is the same idea as the red trolley that went to the Neighborhood of Make-Believe.

That history explains the gentle pace of the show, and of these pages. Nothing dramatic happens on them. A child brushes his teeth, waits at the doctor, meets a baby sister, and that is the story.

A page to get ready for something new

The show's trick is to prepare small children for moments that worry them, with a short song for each one, like the one about taking a breath and counting to four when you feel so mad you want to roar. The coloring pages can do a little of the same work.

Before a first doctor visit, color the page of Daniel on the exam table together and talk about what happens there: the paper on the table, the stethoscope, the swinging feet. Before a new baby arrives, color Daniel pushing Margaret's stroller and let the older child decide what color her blanket should be. Before the first day of school, color Daniel with his lunch box on the schoolhouse steps, and make the lunch box match the real one. The bedtime and toothbrushing pages work the same way for a routine that is going badly: a child who colored Daniel brushing his teeth at five o'clock is a little more willing to do it at seven.

Daniel's colors

Daniel is an orange tiger with dark stripes, which are already drawn in on these pages, and he always wears his red sweater with a zipper down the front. Those two colors are all a child needs to make him recognizable, so this is a good set for a child who is just learning which crayon is which. Tigey, his toy, is striped just like him. Katerina's tutu is pink, O the Owl is brown with round glasses, and Prince Wednesday's crown takes a yellow or a gold.

The rest of the page is free. Give the trolley any color, the sled a bright one against the white snow, and let the autumn leaves be every shade of orange and red in the box.

Busier than the show looks

The show is drawn in flat, simple shapes, but most of these pages are full scenes: a garden path lined with flowers, a schoolhouse porch with pots on the steps, a pile of autumn leaves drawn leaf by leaf. That suits a child of five or six who wants a page to last, or a parent coloring the background while the child takes Daniel.

For a toddler, a few pages keep Daniel large with little around him. Quick to color, above the grid, shows them:

• Daniel Tiger balancing on a log with O
• Daniel Tiger asleep in an armchair
• Daniel Tiger with his snow tiger

The busiest pages, where every flower, leaf and block is its own shape, open Lots of detail:

• Daniel Tiger watering the tomatoes
• Daniel Tiger mandala
• Daniel Tiger raking autumn leaves

A trick for the busy ones with a small child: color the background together first in one or two soft colors, then hand over the orange and the red for Daniel. The child finishes the part that matters.

A birthday table and a busy week

For a Daniel Tiger birthday party, print the birthday page for the guest of honor and a different page for every other child, then leave crayons on the table as the guests arrive: it gives the first ten minutes of a party something calm to do. The carousel, the swing and the picnic pages suit a summer party, the sledding and snow tiger pages a winter one.

At home, a page a day turns into a week of small routines. Pin the finished pages in order on the fridge: bath, teeth, bed, school, doctor, and the child can see the week they colored.

Printing a week of pages

These are free PDFs at 300 dpi, laid out on A4. Print at full size on A4; on US Letter pick "fit to page", which trims the drawing by about six percent and nothing more. The printing guide explains where to find it. Tap Add to pack under the pages you want and print them in one go. For more friends of the same age, the Sesame Street coloring pages, the Peppa Pig coloring pages and the Bluey coloring pages are drawn in the same simple style.