Free Bear Coloring Pages

Bears live in woods, mountains and ice across much of the northern world, from the black bears of North American forests to the polar bears of the Arctic and the giant pandas of China. They are the largest meat-eating land animals, but most of them eat plants too — berries, nuts, roots and, for pandas, almost nothing but bamboo. Children usually meet them first as a storybook cub, which is why a bear page is such an easy one to sit down with. Colour is wide open. Brown, black, cinnamon and creamy tan are all real coat colours, often mixed on the same animal. Polar bears look white but their fur is actually hollow and clear, with black skin underneath — a good talking point if a child wants to leave the last sheet almost uncoloured. The panda on the first sheet is the classic black-and-white pattern: black ears, eye patches, arms and legs, with a white face, belly and back. A purple or rainbow bear is just as welcome. The eight designs get steadily harder. The sitting panda comes first, with thick outlines and a few big shapes that suit toddlers still learning to stay inside the lines. Then a cub lying on its back with paws in the air, a bear curled up asleep, a cub clapping, and a cub sitting and waving — all still bold and friendly, with paw pads and a little chest fur to fill. The last three step up: a bear walking on all fours in side view, an adult standing upright with both arms stretched wide, and a large standing bear looking toward you, with more fur texture on the legs for children who like a longer, careful page. Hibernation is the part worth pausing on. Many bears spend the winter in a den, living off the fat they stored in autumn, and cubs are often born in that den — tiny, about the size of a squirrel — while their mother is still asleep. The sleeping curled-up sheet is a natural one to talk about while colouring. Every sheet prints on landscape US Letter paper at 200 DPI, so the bear fills the page without being cut off. Plain copier paper is fine for crayons and colored pencils. If you are using markers or paint, slightly thicker card stock stops the color bleeding through. In the classroom these pages pair well with a lesson on woodland habitats, on omnivores and what they eat, on winter and hibernation, or on the letter B. Print a few different designs and let each child pick: the panda is finished in a few minutes, while the standing bear can fill a whole quiet afternoon, which keeps a mixed-age table busy at the same time. For the black-and-white cousin see the panda pages, for the white one the polar bear sheets, for the stuffed toy the teddy bear coloring pages, and for the rest the rest of the collection.