Free Rabbit Coloring Pages

Rabbits are small, long-eared mammals that live as pets in houses and as wild animals in meadows, woods and farmland almost everywhere. Children usually meet them first in storybooks or at Easter, but a real rabbit is a quiet, gentle animal that hops, washes its own ears and flops onto its side when it feels safe — all poses that show up on these pages. Colour is wide open. Wild rabbits are usually brown or grey with a white underside of the tail, but pet rabbits come in white, black, ginger, grey, spotted and every mix in between. Lop rabbits have ears that hang down; most other kinds hold theirs up. There is no single "right" rabbit colour, so a pink, purple or rainbow bunny is as welcome as a realistic brown one. Point out the pink of the nose and the pads under the toes, and the pale belly that stays light on many rabbits. The eight designs get steadily harder. The curled-up sleeping rabbit comes first — a round, thick-outlined shape with closed eyes, right for toddlers still learning to stay inside the lines. Next is a hopping rabbit stretched out mid-leap, then a relaxed rabbit lying on its side with its hind paw pads showing, both still simple with big open bodies. The standing rabbit on its hind legs and the floppy-eared lop sitting front-on add a little fur texture. The last three are the longer projects: a close-up smiling face with long whiskers and inner-ear lines, a rabbit sitting and washing one ear with both paws, and a very fluffy rabbit whose whole coat is drawn as curly wool for children who like a careful, detailed piece of work. Every sheet prints on landscape US Letter paper at 200 DPI, so the rabbit 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 — worth doing on the last two sheets, where the fur strands sit close together and can run into each other on flimsy paper. In the classroom these pages pair well with a lesson on pets and how to care for them, on the letter R, on woodland animals, or on Easter. The close-up face makes a good mask: color it, cut around the head, and add a string. Print two or three different designs and let each child pick: the sleeping rabbit is finished in a few minutes, while the fluffy one can fill a whole quiet afternoon, which keeps a mixed-age table busy at the same time. For a holiday version see the Easter bunny pages, or try the fox as the rabbit's woodland neighbour; the complete list of animal pages has more. The flopped rabbit on sheet three is a real behaviour — rabbits lie on their side like that when they feel completely safe — which makes a nice talking point while colouring. The grooming sheet is another real habit: rabbits wash their own ears with their front paws, a bit like a cat.