Star Coloring Pages

A five-pointed star is one of the first shapes a child learns to draw, and one of the last they stop drawing. These star coloring pages go from the real stars overhead to the paper, wooden and sugar stars we make ourselves, with a few that live in the sea.

The night sky comes first. A shooting star trails sparks over the hills, a band of stars stretches across the sky above ocean waves, a lighthouse stands under a full moon, a campfire burns below the mountains, and an owl sits on a weather vane with stars all around. A child in star pajamas stands on a stool at an open window, pointing at the constellations, and the Great Bear is drawn around its own stars. A telescope waits on a balcony between potted plants, a boy in a cardboard rocket reaches for the stars, and a unicorn with stars on its flank gallops under a crescent moon.

Then the stars people make. A star lantern with a candle inside hangs from a branch, a beaded star crowns a Christmas tree, a cookie cutter presses into rolled dough, a star pinata hangs from a beam with fringed points, paper stars hang over a girl on a swing, a star kite flies from a cliff, and a hot air balloon wears stars on its panels. A wooden rocking horse has stars on its saddle, a mobile of stars and planets turns over a crib, a cat sleeps on a star quilt, and a wreath is made of star anise, cinnamon and dried orange.

A starfish sits on a tide pool rock, another lies beside a sand dollar, and a mermaid gathers them along her tail. For fun, a chibi star sits on a cloud, a smiling moon and star hold hands, a fairy sprinkles stars over sleeping tulips, a wizard wears them all over his robe, and a watering can pours stars onto a garden. The pattern pages are the busiest: a nested star mandala, a rose window of six-pointed stars, a quilt square of stars and a snowflake, a sheet of repeating stars, a star wrapped in ribbons over the moon, and a border of stars and moons.

Real stars are not star-shaped

The stars in the sky are not pointed at all. Each one is a huge ball of hot gas, like the Sun, so far away that it looks like a single dot. The points we draw come from our own eyes: light from a tiny, bright dot scatters in the eye and in the eyelashes, and the dot seems to have rays. Stars twinkle for another reason. Their light passes through moving layers of air, which bend it back and forth, so the dot flickers.

Their color is real, though. Hot stars are blue-white, cooler ones are yellow like the Sun, and the coolest are orange or red. Look carefully on a clear night and the difference is visible.

Finding the Great Bear

The constellation on one of these pages, the Great Bear, contains the most famous group of stars in the northern sky: the Big Dipper, seven bright stars shaped like a saucepan with a bent handle. The dipper is the bear's back and tail. Follow the two stars at the end of the pan, the side away from the handle, and they point straight to the North Star, which barely moves all night. Sailors and travelers used it for centuries to find north.

A good project for a clear evening: color the bear, then go outside and find the dipper for real. It is easiest to see in spring, high in the sky after dark.

How to color a star so it shines

• Glowing stars: color the center of the star pale yellow, leave a thin ring of white paper around it, and color the sky outside in dark blue. The white gap looks like light.
• Gold stars: yellow first, then a little orange along two neighboring edges of each point, and brown only at the very tips.
• Silver stars: gray at the edges, white in the center, and one tiny line of pale blue.
• Night skies: black is too flat. Use navy or deep purple, and add a lighter band of blue near the horizon.

Tiny stars and full star patterns

The easiest pages have one clear shape and lots of space, like the Great Bear, the cookie cutter and the starfish on the sand. Quick to color, above the grid, begins with:

• Great Bear constellation
• Star cookie cutter in dough
• Starfish and sand dollar

The detailed pages are made of dozens of small stars and patterns, the quilt, the rose window and the ivy arch. Lots of detail begins with:

• Star and snowflake quilt square
• Star rose window
• Starry arch over a garden gate

A sticker chart that is actually colored

Stars are the classic reward, and these pages make a homemade version. Print the six-pointed star pattern page, pin it to the fridge, and let a child color one star every time they finish a chore, practice the piano or read a book on their own. When the whole page is full, it has earned something: a trip to the park, a treat, a later bedtime. The mandala and the rose window work the same way for older children who want a bigger challenge.

Printing a sky full of stars

Each page is a free A4 PDF drawn at 300 dpi. Print at full size on A4, or with "fit to page" on US Letter, which scales the drawing down by about six percent so that no point of any star is cut. The printing guide shows the setting. Add to pack gathers several pages into one file. The night sky continues in the Earth coloring pages, the starfish in the ocean coloring pages, and the pattern pages pair well with the mandala coloring pages and the rainbow coloring pages.