Ice Cream Coloring Pages

Every child has a favorite flavor, and these ice cream coloring pages let them color it as many times as they like. They are free to print, and the scoops are big and round, with thick outlines that suit a preschooler, while the waffle patterns and loaded sundaes give older kids plenty to fill.

On the menu:

• Cones: two scoops with sprinkles, three stacked scoops, a cherry with sauce running down, a soft swirl with a striped wafer.
• Sundaes and banana splits: scoops in footed bowls, tall fluted glasses and tulip glasses, with cherries, wafers and long spoons.
• Frozen treats: popsicles, round and waffle ice cream sandwiches, a milkshake, rolled ice cream, a three-flavor block.
• The ice cream truck, parked at the curb with a giant cone on its roof.
• Pattern pages: an empty waffle cone filling the sheet, two crossed cones, a waffle basket of scoops.

Ice cream cone coloring pages

The cone is the classic, and the collection has it in many builds. Two big scoops sit on a criss-cross waffle cone under a coat of sprinkles. Three scoops balance in a stack, one with sprinkles and one with chocolate chips. Another cone carries a cherry, with sauce running down its side, and a soft swirl spills over the top of another.

The waffle pattern is the part kids notice. On an ordinary cone it is a grid of small diamonds, and an empty waffle cone stands on its own, its criss-cross filling the whole sheet. Coloring every second diamond a shade darker gives it the toasted look of a real cone.

Some scoops come loaded:

• chocolate chunks and sprinkles on two scoops;
• candy-coated chocolates studded into a soft swirl, with a wafer stick planted in the side;
• a wrapped sweet and a cherry lying at the base of a sprinkled cone.

Those toppings come straight from the candy coloring pages. Cones turn up in many other collections too: one of the Hello Kitty coloring pages has her holding a big one with a cherry on top, and a laughing scoop with a face is waiting in the kawaii coloring pages.

Ice cream sundae and banana split coloring pages

Sundaes are the pages for kids who like to build something. There are scoops crowned with a cherry and a drizzle in a footed glass bowl, four scoops piled in a tall fluted glass, and a tulip glass holding two scoops, a soft swirl, a sandwich cookie and a wafer stick. A loaded coupe stacks three scoops, a swirl, a cookie and a fan-shaped wafer over banana halves.

The banana split has several versions: three cherry-topped scoops on banana halves in an oval dish, scoops on a whole banana in a fluted dish, and a classic split with sauce zigzagged over the top.

Where the banana split comes from

The banana split was created in 1904 in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, by David Strickler, a young pharmacy student working the soda fountain at a local drugstore. The town still celebrates it with a festival each summer. The bananas lead on to the fruit coloring pages, and the strawberry halves tucked into the rolled ice cream to the strawberry coloring pages.

The ice cream truck coloring page

The ice cream truck is parked at the curb, a giant cone on its roof and a striped awning over the serving window. Children can design its paint job: pink and white stripes, pastel polka dots, or the flavors of the day written on the side.

Kids who like the truck will find more ice cream vans in the truck coloring pages, one with two children waiting at the hatch. A unicorn running an ice cream cart is in the unicorn coloring pages.

Popsicles, ice cream sandwiches and milkshakes

Not every frozen treat comes in a scoop:

• Popsicles: three side by side on a tray (ribbed, plain, and dipped with a bite taken out), and three stacked with zigzags, dots and sprinkles.
• Ice cream sandwiches: a round one between scalloped cookies with a spoon, a pair propped together, and a rectangle between waffle wafers seen from above.
• A milkshake under a domed lid, the swirl visible inside the cup and a straw through the top.
• Rolled ice cream standing upright in a bowl.
• A three-flavor block starting to melt on a round plate.

The ice pop on a stick has a famous origin story. In 1905, an eleven-year-old named Frank Epperson left a cup of soda mix with a stirring stick out on a cold night in California and found it frozen solid the next morning. He patented the idea as an adult, in 1924.

Choosing flavor colors for ice cream

Half the fun is deciding what flavor each scoop is. A guide to the classics:

• Vanilla: cream or very pale yellow, with a few brown specks for the beans.
• Chocolate: mid brown, darker in the folds.
• Strawberry: light pink with red dots for the fruit.
• Mint chocolate chip: pale green with dark brown chips.
• Blue raspberry or bubblegum: bright blue or pink, for scoops that taste of nothing in nature.
• Waffle cone: golden tan, with darker lines in the grid.

Making a scoop look round

Leave a small white curve near the top of each scoop for the shine. Press harder on the bottom edge, where the scoop meets the cone or the one below it. Drips are easier to color in a slightly darker shade than the scoop they run from.

Easy ice cream pages for little kids, patterns for patient ones

Most of the cones and cups are a few big round shapes, ideal for a three-year-old. Big scoops on a plain cone, with little more than a cherry, are the pages Quick to color puts first:

• Three scoops in a footed bowl
• A round ice cream sandwich and a spoon
• A swirl with sprinkles in a paper cup

The waffle patterns are a different job. The empty cone filling the page, the two crossed cones and the waffle basket of scoops are rows and rows of little diamonds, calm and repetitive like a mandala. Lots of detail gathers those waffle grids together:

• An empty waffle cone on its own
• A waffle basket filled with scoops
• Two crossed cones with three scoops

For more summer, try the summer coloring pages and the beach coloring pages, where seagulls squabble over an ice cream cone dropped on the boardwalk.

An ice cream party, and printing the menu

July is National Ice Cream Month in the United States, and the third Sunday of July is National Ice Cream Day, both proclaimed by President Reagan in 1984. For an ice cream social or a birthday party, give each guest a cone page and let them invent a flavor, then name it on the back. A slice of layered cake on a stand rounds out a party table, alongside the happy birthday coloring pages, cupcake coloring pages and donut coloring pages.

Any scoop downloads free, as a PDF sized for A4 at 300 dpi. On US Letter, turn on fit to page, or the top scoop of the tallest cones can lose its cherry. The waffle pattern pages deserve 100 % scale on A4, where the small diamonds stay crisp. To hand out a whole parlor menu, Add to pack collects the cones and sundaes into one download, and the printing guide explains the print dialog. The food coloring pages gather the rest of the meal.