Igloo Coloring Page

This igloo coloring page shows a round block house at night, with northern lights and seven stars above and icy peaks behind it. A small husky sits by the front, a fish lies out on the snow beside a hole in the ice, and a sled with a striped blanket waits on the right. The rounded doorway has an arch of its own, so the house feels like a place you could crawl into. Kids from 5 to 10 can color it in about 30 minutes, and it is rated medium.

Dark sky, bright snow

The best thing about this page is the contrast. Our colored sample uses a deep navy sky with lilac peaks, and pale blue blocks that seem to glow against it. Green, teal and purple bands of northern lights cross the sky. Kids rarely get to color a page this dark, and many of them enjoy the change.

A dark sky takes patience, though. Crayons need firm pressure to go that deep. It pays off. Markers will do it faster, or you can try this trick: lay down blue first, then go over it with purple. Keep the stars yellow by coloring around them, since a dark crayon will not go back to bright.

The doorway should be your darkest spot. Use black or dark gray and it will read as a deep hole. Add a warm yellow inside if your child wants to imagine a lamp burning.

How to color the blocks

The blocks are the fun part, and they suit older kids in this age range. There are plenty of them, curving around the dome in rows. Try giving each one a slightly different shade of blue, or skip every other block for a simple pattern.

• Press lightly on the top rows and harder near the bottom. The dome will look rounder.
• Follow the curve of each row with your crayon strokes.
• Leave a thin white edge along the top of the igloo, as if starlight were hitting it.
• Give the arch around the doorway its own color, so it stands out from the wall.

The dog and fish on this igloo coloring page

Younger kids can start with these two. The husky is made of simple round shapes with two pointed ears and a tail in the air. Gray works, and so does brown with white. A bright orange fish with a yellow tail adds a spot of warm color to all that blue and white. The body has rows of small curved scales and a round eye, so it is an easy finish.

Ask your child why the dog might be watching that fish. Expect a funny story.

What is an igloo, really?

Our drawing shows pale blue blocks, but the igloos in Britannica are made of snow. It says many Inuit spent the winter in snow-block houses, called iglus or igluvigaqs depending on the dialect. Others wintered in houses built partly underground, made of stone or sod over a frame of wood or whalebone.

Snow houses were never the whole story. In summer, people lived in lighter tents made of animal skins. See the Britannica article on the Inuit for more. It is a good chance to tell kids that this page is a simple drawing and not a full picture of Inuit life.

Classroom and home ideas

Sugar cubes make a great building project for a rainy afternoon, and you probably have everything you need in the kitchen already. Glue them in a ring on a paper plate, then add more rows, each one leaning in a little. Mini marshmallows work too, and you can eat the leftovers.

Count the blocks in one row, then count the rows. Older kids can make a good guess at the total before they count every block. Finding the number of stars takes no time for younger kids, and they can tell you there are seven.

Science time? Lay out a dark paper and a white paper in the sun. Check which one feels warmer after a few minutes, then talk about why pale snow stays cold.

More cold places to color

This igloo coloring page pairs well with other Arctic animals. Try the polar bear coloring page or our arctic fox coloring page. Kids can also meet a bird of the far south on the penguin coloring page.

Questions