Ballet coloring pages offer hours of fun to aspiring ballerinas as well as helping the youngest dancers learn and reinforce important ballet vocabulary.
Learning to Dance
Anyone who has learned ballet will tell you that mastering the art requires not only learning how to do the movements, but also learning a lot of new vocabulary in order to know which movement is which. It doesn't help that the vocabulary of ballet is all in French; remembering words when you can't even pronounce them packs a double punch when learning vocabulary.
Learning ballet technique is difficult enough without the added difficulty of learning all of the terms. For young children, ballet coloring pages can offer a great opportunity to learn new ballet terms and to reinforce terms that they have been introduced to, but have not yet learned. A coloring book that shows ballet positions, labeled with the name of each position, is a fun and effective way to learn the necessary vocabulary while studying ballet dancing.
Learning Through Coloring
One special coloring book geared towards young dancers is the My Ballet Coloring Book, which teaches the five ballet positions as well as several common ballet terms. Made by dancers with the express goal of teaching children the terms that are found inside the coloring book, this book is a great educational resource. Order the book online and when it arrives, your little ballerina can study the positions and vocabulary of ballet without even knowing that she's studying it.
Fun With Ballet Coloring Pages
In addition to all that can be learned by coloring ballet images that are labeled with the name of the position that is shown in the picture, lots of fun can be had coloring ballet images without having any ulterior motive for learning about ballet. Children can have lots of fun coloring in general ballet coloring books such as the Nutcracker Ballet Coloring Book, which tells the story of the Nutcracker Ballet with page after page of great images to color.
Free Coloring Page Sources
While the coloring books mentioned are great resources, there is also something to be said for the opportunity to print out coloring pages at home (for free) and be able to start coloring immediately. This is an easier, and cheaper, option, especially for younger children who don't yet color inside the lines and can manage to 'color' ten pages in five minutes. Coloring books go quickly at that rate! While the ballet coloring books make great gifts for older children, these free coloring pages online are a great resource for younger children:
- Coloring: Ballet and other dance forms featured on single pages to print out and color at home
- Sherri Allen: A small, but nice selection of dance coloring pages
- Ballerina Primavera: Dreamy dancer images to print and color
On the website New York City Ballet Kids' Coloring, kids can choose from a wide selection of actual photos of ballet performances, and then click on it to turn it into a black and white image to print and then color. This is a fun, free coloring option because the kids can see the colors of the actual costumes and then use their imagination to change all the colors around.
Whether you're looking for a nice gift for a child, or it's a rainy afternoon and you're in need of an immediate activity for the kids to do, dance pictures to color are a fun activity for children of many ages. If you're looking for something for your little boy to color while your little princess is coloring these ballet pictures, try these fun fire engine coloring pages.
