Coloring Pages for Upper Elementary Students

Bring instant engagement into your classroom with intentional coloring pages designed for upper elementary that tie together academics and coloring with meaningful tasks!

Are you wondering how to use coloring pages in your upper elementary classroom? Look no further! Whether you're planning engaging lessons, looking for ways to reinforce academic concepts, bulking up your fast finisher bin, or simply want to add a fun twist with coloring pages to your daily routine, incorporating these ideas for coloring sheets will be a game-changer! 

Upper elementary students still love coloring, and with the right strategies, we can turn this simple activity into a powerful educational tool. From fostering creativity to enhancing learning across subjects, coloring pages are a versatile resource you can keep in your teacher's toolbox all year.

Plus, there are so many benefits for students when you bring coloring activities into the classroom:

✅ encourages focus and concentration

✅ increases motivation

✅ enhances creativity

✅ reduces anxiety

✅ improves fine motor skills

✅ reinforces concepts learned

✅ helps kids calm down and transition

✅ encourages patience and persistence

Read on to discover eight creative ways to use coloring pages and activity sheets that will captivate and educate your upper elementary students!

1. Brainstorm for Writing Tasks

Using coloring pages as a starting point for brainstorming helps students when it comes time to write. I love using Doodle Thinker pages because the images directly match to the word work, list building, and writing topic. This allows students to already start thinking about their writing as they color. When they are done coloring, writing becomes their focus.

These are fun, simple, and meaningful to use each month for different holidays and special days!

 

2. Fast Finisher Bins and More

Coloring pages are perfect for fast finishers, brain breaks, center tasks, and morning work! You can also add coloring pages to your substitute bin. Once students understand how to use different coloring activities, they become the perfect independent task. Students work hard and concentrate as they complete different coloring pages. 

Here are the different types of coloring pages that we use:

👉Doodle Thinkers: These are our favorite! Each page has a different theme or topic. The kids color the mini images with any colors they want. When they are done, the kids answer a list-building activity, do word work, do a scavenger hunt, and write to a given task. Since all the images are related to the writing tasks, even your most reluctant writers will love to write!

👉Color by Code/Number: Color by code pages follow specific rules or directions for coloring. Each page includes an image to color. The image is broken into different pieces and assigned a problem to solve. Once the problem is solved, students get the coloring code answer and color that piece in the picture. These are great for reviewing grammar and math skills and strengthening reading comprehension.

💡Teacher Tip: Have students complete all of the questions first, then go back and match the code to their coloring. This makes it easier for students.

👉Kaleidoscope Designs: These free choice coloring templates are fun for kids to plan out what coloring pattern they want to use. There is no direction to follow. I encourage the kids to pick three or four colors and design a repeating pattern to complete the page. The kids love to complete these during dismissal time!

👉Quote Coloring Pages:  I love to give students words of wisdom coloring pages that help them stay positive and have a growth mindset. These are fun any time of the year, but I especially love using them at the beginning of the year and during standardized testing season.

3. Vocabulary Building 

We love to draw and label! You can have your students draw their own images or select coloring pages that relate to a specific theme or subject. Students can label different parts of the picture with new vocabulary words they are learning. For example, when you are learning the different parts of a plant, have students draw a plant or find an image/clipart of a plant that students can color and label! Doodle Thinker pages also help build our vocabulary through list writing. 

 

4. Tricky Concept Review

Incorporate math by having students solve problems or puzzles where the answers determine the colors they use on different parts of the page. Color-by-code pages are great for this! We use color by code to help practice basic facts like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. But we also use them for more complex math tasks like estimation, place value, telling time, and order of operations!

Don't limit yourself to math! Color-by-code activities are also perfect for any type of grammar practice or review, especially as the kids get older and need reminders and reviews of grammar concepts.

 

5. Content and Real World Connections

Use coloring pages related to scientific topics, like the solar system, animals, or plants. Students can color the pages and add labels or facts they have learned about each subject. We love to use science coloring pages to help us understand life cycles! Recently, we loved coloring pages to help us understand tricky concepts and vocabulary related to current events such as the Summer Olympics, solar eclipse, and leap year! 

 

6. Positive Classroom Decor

I love to display student artwork and coloring! Allow students to color pages that will be used to decorate the classroom. This can help build a sense of community and ownership of their learning space. Select phrases that encourage a positive mindset. You can have students complete sets like these and leave them up all year, or have students color seasonal images and rotate the pages out each month or season.

 

7. Affirmations, Mindfulness, and Kindness

Integrate coloring pages into mindfulness and kindness activities. Coloring can be a calming activity that helps students focus and de-stress, especially during transitions, after tests, or during crazy times of the year. Daily affirmations are a great way to start the day positively and remind students how special they are! They are also a great way to teach students to be kind.

💡Teacher Tip: Use one affirmation a week. Give students time each morning to color the weekly affirmation. You can have students take their completed affirmation pages and create a book for themselves, or you can collect them and decorate your classroom, bulletin boards, or door with them!

Spread kindness with kindness pages devoted to helping your students reflect on kindness, promote ways that they can be kind, and bring kindness into your classroom! These are also fun to hand and display around the room because they include different kindness phrases!

 

Grab these FREE kindness coloring pages to try in your upper elementary classroom!

8. Interactive Projects

Create collaborative projects where students each color a piece of a larger image. When assembled, it forms a complete mural or poster that can be displayed in the classroom. These are fun to leave on the back table to have students complete as they finish work throughout the day or week. You can set a time limit to challenge students or just allow them to work and finish as they can. I loved using these last year for holiday and seasonal activities and decor. They are fun to hang when students are done!

Try these collaborative projects...

🖍 Positivity Collaborative Coloring Poster
🖍 Affirmation Collaborative Coloring Poster
🖍 Back to School Collaborative Coloring Poster
🖍 Seasonal Collaborative Coloring Posters
🖍 Happy Birthday Collaborative Coloring Posters 

Coloring page activities like these make learning fun and help integrate various subjects and skills, promoting a well-rounded educational experience for your upper elementary students. Once you begin to incorporate these ideas, you will see an increase in student participation, improved skills and focus, and students asking for more! Happy coloring!

Looking for more coloring activities like these? Head HERE.

You will love reading these posts:

6 Benefits of Using Interactive Read Aouds

Picture Books for Teaching Inferring

Teaching Effective Reading Strategies

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*affiliate links: “Think Grow Giggle is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.” (source: Section 5)

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Planning for a Substitute and Emergency Sub Plan Ideas Upper Elementary

Teachers everywhere dread planning for a sub! 

That's because there is so much that goes into leaving appropriate sub plans that include meaningful activities that meet the needs of your individual class.  From step-by-step directions to student information to behavior management tips, it can take forever and seem like so much work to do, especially when you are sick!

And what could be worse than actually writing the sub plans? Returning to work the next day to clean up what happened in your absence, especially if you get a less than glowing note about the day from the substitute.

It is not easy being a teacher, and it is especially not easy being a sick teacher planning for a sub. After 18 years of having to write sub plans for sick days, personal days, and professional development days, I know what works and what does not work! 

Read on to learn 5 game-changing tips that will make planning for your next sub much simpler AND will earn your students that positive glowing note from the substitute when you return to school! 

What are tips for planning for a substitute teacher?

1: Teach Your Expectations

The first few weeks are jam-packed with routines and setting expectations. The kids learn how to do just about everything during those first few weeks. Add substitute expectations to that list of routines you teach your students at the start of the year.

This is important because you want students to know exactly what you expect while you are out. Teaching them before there is a sub eliminates confusion and cuts back on problems that may occur in your absence. I even create an anchor chart of classroom expectations for a substitute with the kids. then, when I am out I pull that anchor chart out and leave it front and center. This shows the kids that I have expectations and it also holds students accountable.

Recently, I started using digital slides to share my classroom rules and expectations with my students. On the last page of the slide, I have the kids sign their names as a contract of expectations. Then I print out the slides and staple to combine them into a book. Now this book serves as a manual to how your classroom runs. I leave this in the sub bin so every sub and guest teacher knows how our room operates!

2: Have a Secret Stash

We all have a million picture books in our classrooms! Some are the go-to books that we read aloud every year without fail, and some are ones that we still love, but do not read as often. Make a stack of about ten appropriate picture books for your grade level. You can even throw in some nonfiction picture books. Then make copies of generic graphic organizers and student reading reflection activities that can be used with any book. 

Leave the books and organizers in a cabinet or sub bin tucked away, just waiting for the day they will be needed for a quick reading activity in your absence.

Teacher TIP: Share the workload! Do this as a grade level so that you all have something easy yet meaningful to leave with a sub anytime and especially during an emergency absence. Take turns replenishing the copies so they are ready to go all year.

Grab these free graphic organizers that work with so many picture books for your next set of sub plans!

3: Prep That Info Folder

As you are putting together your teacher binder and schedules at the beginning of the year, make an extra set of copies. Use those copies to add to your substitute folder. Here is what I am sure to put in my subfolder at the start of the year:

• letter to the substitute
• class list
• daily schedule
• special instructions specific to my class 
• medical/allergy information (follow your district's privacy policy)
• individual student schedules
• teacher name and room number of who is available to help
• simple management system

Now place that folder in your drawer and show a colleague where it is for when you are out unexpectedly. Doing this at the start of the year makes planning for a sub any day much simpler!

4: Have a Simple Management Tool

For years every time I planned for a sub, I tried to explain my classroom management system in my sub notes. And every time, there was confusion. The children would say one thing to the sub, I was writing something else to the sub, and oftentimes the sub was just so confused that they used no management system at all. This led to less than great behavior in my absence. 

What I started to do was have a separate management system for when a sub was is in the classroom. I keep it very simple and explain it to the students at the beginning of the year when we go over our substitute expectations. Here is how it works. I place this paper at the front of the room when the sub is in charge and the students work all day to earn letters to complete the phrase “hard workers”. When I return to school, if the students have earned all the letters to spell out “hard workers” they will get a class reward. I keep the reward simple, like 15 extra minutes of recess or we'll do an extra art project together.

This works wonders because it is simple enough for everyone to understand.

5: Collect What the Kids Love

While it is very helpful to plan ahead for a substitute at the beginning of the year, it is also a good idea to add to a substitute stash throughout the year. 

Here is what I do:

After we play a grammar or math game in class, one that the students particularly love and know how to play, I will make copies and leave them in the sub stash or bin. I like to do this because they are tried and true activities that students know how to play and that can provide extra practice for different skills. This can be done for a wide range of activities. The next time you notice that students love a math game or reading activity, make an extra set of copies. You will be providing students with meaningful practice and engaging activities that will help eliminate problems when a sub is in charge. Try these free math games and see what I mean!

You can also use this tip with any activity that you consistently use with your students. 

In my classroom, we use the same format, structure, and type of close reading passage. The only thing that changes is the topic. The kids love them because they are high-interest topics that make them want to read! They know exactly what I expect that they do as they read the passage, how they are to answer the questions, and they love the creative component that goes along with each set. Since they know exactly what to do with these close reading passages, there is no confusion for them. The consistency holds them accountable for doing quality work in my absence, and makes it easier on the sub, too!

6: Prep for Sub Plans at Start of the Year

The best teacher tip is to have substitute plans on hand for any time of the year! When you have seasonal sub plans on hand, they are timely, intentional, and appropriate. This makes the best sub plans as they are not activities thrown together at the last minute!

Have emergency sub plans prepped and ready to go for the year with this seasonal sub plan pack! This will make sure that the plans you leave align with content learning and seasonal fun!

Themed lesson plans also allow for intentionally planned activities to be left in your absence. These fable-themed substitute lesson plans are perfect for any 3rd or 4th grade classroom!

Bonus Tip: Have Clear Volume Expectations and Classroom Routines Posted

One unexpected game changer that I have found helps to keep order when a substitute is in the classroom is to have clear voice-level expectations. At the beginning of the year, we spend a lot of time going over this management tool. We go over each level, when it can and should be used, and why it is important to have voice levels. Once the students understand these levels, we practice them and they become a habit. I add these expectations to my sub plans so that the sub can enforce these voice levels. It really does help to keep order in my absence!

Go one step further and print out all of your classroom routines, procedures, and expectations for your sub. I print the slides from my Back to School Procedure Slideshow. These are perfect to use as a handbook of how your classroom operates for the substitute or guest teacher.

Ok teacher friends, put these tips into action today and make the next time you need to plan for a sub snap! I hope you get that positive note upon returning to your classroom. Stay well!

Print and Go Sub Plans for the Year!

You will also love reading:

4 Simple Ways to Bring Kindness into the Classroom

How to Use Interactive Anchor Charts to Assess Students

6 Classroom Items You Didn't Know You Needed

Looking for meaningful independent reading activities that are perfect to leave with a sub? Click HERE.

                 

                       LOVE these tips? Pin to save!

*affiliate links: “Think Grow Giggle is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.” (source: Section 5)