Free Color by Number Worksheets for Kindergarten – Color and Count

These free printable color by number worksheets give kindergarten children ten hidden pictures. Every page is a grid of small squares with a number in each one, a key at the top saying which number is which color, and a picture that only appears once the coloring is done.

Every grid in this pack is the same size: 15 rows of 13 squares, 195 squares in all. Every page uses exactly three colors, and the child has to check the key to find out which three.

The code itself never changes. Across all ten pages, 1 is always red, 2 orange, 3 yellow, 4 green, 5 blue, 6 purple, 7 brown and 8 pink. What changes is which three of those eight numbers turn up.

What Is in This Free Color by Number Worksheet Pack

• Ten printable pictures: a star, a house, an ice cream, a fish, a crown, a sailboat, a heart, a balloon, a tree and a sun.
• A grid of 195 squares on every page, 15 rows of 13.
• Exactly three colors per page, listed in a key at the top.
• Numbers 1 to 8 only – no 0 and no 9 anywhere in the pack.
• An eleventh page showing all ten finished pictures.
• A separate PDF for every page, free to download and print.

The 11 Color by Number Worksheets

The three numbers change on every page, and that is the part worth knowing before you print. Page 1 is 2, 3 and 5. Page 5 is 2, 3 and 6. Page 9 is 4, 5 and 7. A child cannot learn the key once and then stop looking at it – except on page 10, which quietly reuses page 1’s numbers.

The pictures also differ far more in size than they look. The fish on page 4 takes 54 colored squares; the house on page 2 takes 118. That is the difference between a ten-minute page and a half-hour one, and none of it is printed anywhere on the sheet.

Worksheet 1 – Star (orange, yellow, blue)

The key is 2 = orange, 3 = yellow, 5 = blue. Counted square by square, the grid holds 138 fives, 34 twos and 23 threes.

Only 57 of the 195 squares are part of the star. Everything else is sky. That is what makes this a good first page: most of the work is one color, and the picture appears near the end rather than gradually.

Worksheet 2 – House (red, blue, brown)

1 = red, 5 = blue, 7 = brown, and the counts are close: 77 blue, 71 red, 47 brown.

This is the fullest picture in the pack. 118 of the 195 squares belong to the house, so the sky is the smallest it ever gets. A child who has just done the star will notice that this one takes much longer.

Worksheet 3 – Ice Cream (red, blue, pink)

1 = red, 5 = blue, 8 = pink. 121 blue squares, 49 pink, 25 red.

The red is the outline of the scoop and the cone, and there are only 25 of those squares. Outlines are where miscoloring shows most, so this is a page to slow down on.

Worksheet 4 – Fish (red, orange, blue)

1 = red, 2 = orange, 5 = blue. 141 blue, 28 orange, 26 red.

The sparsest picture in the pack: just 54 squares of fish in 141 squares of water. It is the quickest page here, and a good one to hand a child who has run out of patience.

Worksheet 5 – Crown (orange, yellow, purple)

2 = orange, 3 = yellow, 6 = purple. 119 purple, 39 yellow, 37 orange.

This is the first page where the background is not blue. Four pages of blue sky teach a habit, and a purple background breaks it. Children who have stopped reading the key will color the 6s blue.

Worksheet 6 – Sailboat (yellow, purple, pink)

3 = yellow, 6 = purple, 8 = pink. 131 yellow, 41 purple, 23 pink.

No blue anywhere, and a yellow background instead of a sky. Of the ten pages this is the one that looks least like what a child expects before they start coloring.

Worksheet 7 – Heart (red, blue, pink)

1 = red, 5 = blue, 8 = pink – the same three numbers as page 3, used for a completely different picture. 117 blue, 49 red, 29 pink.

The pink is a border running around the red heart, so the two picture colors touch along their whole length. Getting the edge right is the whole job on this page.

Worksheet 8 – Balloon (red, yellow, purple)

1 = red, 3 = yellow, 6 = purple. 131 yellow, 39 purple, 25 red.

The string is a single line of red squares running down from the balloon. One missed square breaks it, and children spot that themselves the moment they finish.

Worksheet 9 – Tree (green, blue, brown)

4 = green, 5 = blue, 7 = brown. 128 blue, 34 green, 33 brown.

The only page in the pack that uses green, and the only one where the two picture colors are almost exactly the same size, 34 squares against 33. The trunk runs the full height of the tree, which is why it takes as many squares as the branches.

Worksheet 10 – Sun (orange, yellow, blue)

2 = orange, 3 = yellow, 5 = blue – exactly the same three numbers the pack opened with. 118 blue, 46 orange, 31 yellow.

The rays are made of single squares poking out into the sky, which is harder to color neatly than the solid star on page 1. Same colors, same idea, more care needed: a good last page.

Answer Key – All 10 Pictures

The eleventh sheet shows every picture already colored, small enough that ten fit on one page.

Print it only if you want to. Half the point of a color by number is that nobody knows what the picture is until it appears, and a child who has seen the key first has lost that.

What a Child Is Actually Practicing

Color by number looks like a coloring page, and the coloring is the reward rather than the work. The work is doing the same small thing 195 times without losing track: read the numeral, find it in the key, pick up that crayon, fill that square, move on.

That is numeral recognition at a scale no flashcard reaches. A child who is still hesitating over 6 and 9 will hesitate a hundred times on one page, and by the end of it the hesitation is usually gone. Note that this pack helps there in one specific way: 9 never appears, so a child who sees a curly numeral knows it is a 6.

There is also a shortcut worth allowing. Most children start at the top left and work along the rows, changing crayons constantly. Sooner or later one of them notices they could color every 5 first, then every 2, then every 3. That is sorting – grouping 195 things into three categories – and it is both faster and more mathematical than going in order. Let them.

When Children Are Ready for Color by Number

• Age: about four to six – pre-K through kindergarten.
• Before starting: the child should recognize the numerals 1 to 8 on sight. They do not need to count, add or read anything.
• K.MD.B.3 – classify objects into given categories and count how many are in each. Coloring by number is that standard wearing a crayon.
• It also builds the hand control children need for letter formation, without asking them to form any letters.

How to Use These Worksheets

1. Read the key together before the first square. Point at each number and say its color out loud.
2. Do the first row together, then leave the child to it. This is a page to finish alone.
3. Suggest coloring all of one number first if the child is finding the crayon-swapping tiring. It is quicker and it is good sorting practice.
4. Keep the page whole. A half-colored grid does not show anything, so this is the wrong worksheet to cut short.
5. Start with page 4 (the fish) or page 1 (the star) for a child who tires quickly, and save page 2 (the house) for a long afternoon.
6. Do not show the answer key first. The picture appearing is the reason children finish.

Three Things to Watch For

1. Coloring by memory instead of by the key. The first four pages all have a blue background, and then page 5 makes it purple. Children who have learned “the big empty number is the sky and the sky is blue” will color a purple crown page blue. Check the key together at the start of every page, not just the first.

2. Skipped squares. One missed square inside a solid area is barely visible; one missed square on the balloon string on page 8 breaks the line. When a picture looks wrong, look for a white square before assuming the colors went astray.

3. Running out of steam on the big pictures. The house is more than twice the work of the fish, and nothing on the page warns you. If a child is flagging, the page is probably the reason, not the child.

Printing Tips

• Print at 100 percent, actual size, on A4 or US Letter. The squares are already small; scaling down makes them hard for a young hand to stay inside.
• Color printing is not needed – the key squares print as gray boxes but the words orange, yellow and blue are printed next to them.
• Crayons or colored pencils work better than markers here. Markers bleed across the thin grid lines.

Frequently Asked Questions

What age are these color by number worksheets for?

About four to six years old. A child needs to recognize the numerals 1 to 8; no counting or reading is required.

How many squares are on a page?

195 on every page: 15 rows of 13 squares. Every page in the pack is the same size.

Which colors are used?

Eight across the pack: 1 red, 2 orange, 3 yellow, 4 green, 5 blue, 6 purple, 7 brown and 8 pink. Each page uses three of them, and the code never changes from page to page.

Which page is the quickest?

Page 4, the fish. Only 54 of the 195 squares belong to the picture. The slowest is page 2, the house, at 118.

Is there an answer key?

Yes, page 11 shows all ten finished pictures. It is worth keeping out of sight until the child has finished.

Do I need to sign up to download these?

No. Every PDF downloads immediately, with no account, no email address and no cost.

Can I use these in my classroom?

Yes, they are free to print for home and classroom use. Please do not sell them or re-host the files elsewhere.

More Free Colors and Counting Worksheets

• Free Color by Shape Worksheets for Kindergarten
• Free Color Recognition Worksheets for Preschool – Find the Same Color
• Free Color Words Worksheets for Kindergarten – Match Colors and Words
• Free What Color Is It Worksheets for Kindergarten – Color Words
• Free Connect the Dots Worksheets for Kids – Numbers 1 to 20
• Free Shape Recognition Worksheets for Kindergarten – Circle the Shapes