Car Coloring Pages

Pick your ride

Speed fans should start with the race car coloring page, which has a rear wing and a big number 7. The sports car is a low road car with mountains behind it, and the classic car has a round roof and a long chrome bumper that older relatives tend to love.

For bigger jobs, try the truck coloring page with its load of hay, or the tractor on a plowed field. The monster truck rides on giant knobby tires, so it is a favorite with kids who like noise.

Helpers have a place here too. The fire truck carries a long ladder, and the police car is out on patrol at night under the stars. Little ones often ask for the school bus, since they see one every day.

Cars coloring pages by age

Children aged two to four do best with big shapes. The truck, the bus and the fire truck all have a large body that can take a thick crayon. Do not expect them to stay in the lines. At this age, simply holding a crayon and naming the parts is a good day's work.

Kids from five to eight can handle the wheels, windows and small lights. They often have strong ideas about color, so let them pick. Many want every car to be red. Others will invent a team of their own with stripes and numbers.

Older kids and teens may enjoy the classic car and the sports car. These reward shading. Leave a thin white line along the door and the paint will seem to shine. Add a soft gray shadow under the wheels, and the car will look heavy and real.

How to color wheels and shiny paint

• Color the tires dark, then leave the middle ring silver or gray.
• Do the windows first in pale blue. They will stay clean that way.
• Press hard with a crayon on the body for a strong, glossy look.
• Add a yellow headlight and a red tail light. Those two dots make the front and back look real.
• Use plain gray for the road, and leave the dashes dark.

Markers look bold on these big shapes, but they can soak through thin paper. Slip a spare sheet underneath, or print on card stock if your child loves felt tips.

Learning with cars and trucks

A child who loves wheels will often sit still for a car page when nothing else works. Use that. Count the wheels, name the colors and talk about what each vehicle does. A fire truck and a police car open up a good talk about people who help us. A tractor can lead to questions about where food comes from.

Parents of early readers can write the name of the vehicle at the top of the sheet. Ask your child to copy it underneath. Words like car, bus and truck are short, so they make good first spelling practice.

Teachers can run a simple transport unit with these pages. Sort them into groups: which ones move people, and which ones move things? Hang them along a long strip of black paper with a dashed white line. Now the class has a road running around the room. If you want a math link, ask students to count the wheels in the row.

A short history of the car

Karl Benz built a car with a gas engine in 1885, and it had just three wheels. Early cars were costly, and few people could buy one. That changed when Ford began making the Model T on a moving assembly line. By the 1920s, millions of families owned a car. You can read more about vehicles on Wikipedia.

Trucks, buses and tractors soon followed, and farm work and city life were never the same. Today many new cars run on electric power. Ask your child what cars might look like in 50 years, then ask them to draw one on the back of a page.

Cars coloring pages for parties and road trips

Planning a birthday with a car theme? Set out a page at each seat with a small box of crayons. Kids can make a license plate with their name, and that is your party craft taken care of. Hold a race with cut out cars and a coin flip, and give a sticker to each driver.

Pages also help on long drives. Clip a few to a board and add a pouch of crayons. Then play a game: find a red truck on the road and color one on your page. Short trips feel shorter, and nobody needs a screen.

Rainy days are the other big use. Print two copies of a favorite car and hold a design contest. One child picks the colors for the first, and a grown up picks for the second. Vote at dinner.

Number fun with cars

For a puzzle, try our color by number car. Each space has a number, and the key at the bottom shows which color to use. It is a good way to practice numbers 1 to 6.

More pages to explore

Find more quiet fun in our full collection of coloring pages. Young kids can move on to our preschool coloring pages, and space fans will like our rocket coloring page, which goes a good bit faster than any car.

Questions