Banana Coloring Page

This banana coloring page stars a very tall banana with a happy little face, standing in the middle of a jungle. A monkey sits at its feet, hugging a banana of his own. Up above, a thick branch runs across the page with a bunch of four bananas hanging from it. A vine dangles on the left, a sun peeks between the leaves, and three round tropical flowers bloom in the grass.

The page suits ages 3 to 8. Younger kids can stick to the banana and the monkey. Older ones may want to add detail to the giant leaves, each of which has a center rib and side veins to follow. Allow about 20 minutes, a bit more if your child colors every vein.

Ideas for jungle colors

Yellow bananas are a given, yet there is a lot of room to play around them. Green is the main color on this page, so try to use at least three greens. Give the back leaves one shade and the front leaf a deeper one. The hills behind can be a pale mint, which pushes them far into the distance.

The monkey looks best in a warm brown with a tan face. Leave his eyes alone and fill the rest around them. For the flowers, go loud. Pink, red and orange all work, with a yellow middle. Nothing in a jungle needs to be shy.

Want a silly page? Paint the sky pink and the leaves blue. A child who picks odd colors is making real choices, and that is worth cheering.

How to color the tall shapes

Long shapes can get boring to fill. Try coloring the banana in strokes that follow its curve, from top to bottom. The finished color looks smoother and the two curved lines on its body feel like part of the fruit.

1. Start with the face, then work outward.
2. Color the brown stem and the dark tip before the yellow, so the yellow does not smear.
3. Do the bunch at the top with a colored pencil, since those bananas sit close together.
4. Finish with the sky, stroking a flat crayon across it for an even wash.

Banana facts that surprise people

A banana plant looks like a tree, but it is really a giant herb. Its trunk is not made of wood. It is built from tightly wrapped leaf stalks, and it is called a pseudostem, which means false stem. Stranger still, the banana itself counts as a berry to a plant scientist.

Bananas grow in tiers called hands, and one hand can hold up to 20 fruits. Those sold in far away stores are picked while still green, then left to ripen once they arrive. The Wikipedia article on bananas covers the plant in more detail.

Things to do with the finished picture

Ask your child to count the bananas on the page, then guess how many the monkey plans to eat. Older kids can tell the story of how the monkey got down from the branch with his prize.

In a classroom, this sheet makes a nice start to a rainforest unit. Have each child cut out the monkey and glue it onto a big shared jungle mural. Put the finished leaves around it and you have a wall display in one afternoon.

Getting the banana coloring page ready

Print the PDF on plain Letter paper, or pick Fit to page for A4. Going to the doctor or on a long drive? Fold the banana coloring page in half and pack it with a small box of crayons and a clipboard, since the hard back gives kids a steady surface in a car seat. A few sheets will last a whole trip. If there is a tablet handy, the online version works too, and no one has to hunt for the yellow crayon.

Keep the fruit going

You will find the rest of the set in our fruit coloring pages. Another tropical pick is the mango coloring page, which has a parrot in a big shady tree. For a pile of mixed food with faces, see the kawaii fruit coloring page.

Questions