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Your kids will love these free printable penguin coloring pages! From cute baby penguins to realistic emperor penguins, there’s a page here for every little penguin lover.
There’s just something about penguins. Maybe it’s the waddle. Maybe it’s the tuxedo. Either way, if your kids are anything like mine, they can’t get enough of these adorable birds.
So I put together 20 free penguin coloring pages for you to print at home. Some are cute and simple for little hands, some are realistic for your budding zoologists, and a few are just plain silly.
These printable penguin coloring pages are perfect for snow days, quiet time, winter units at school, or those long waits at the doctor’s office. And here’s a fun bonus: penguins are sneaky little science teachers. As your kids color, you can chat about where penguins live, how they swim, and why penguin dads are basically superheroes. And then take a field trip to the zoo or aquarium to see the penguins in real life!
Cute and Easy Penguin Coloring Pages
Let’s start with the cute, chubby ones (not bodyshaming). These easy penguin coloring pages have thick, simple lines that are perfect for toddlers and preschoolers who are still working on staying inside the lines.
Happy Waddling Penguin
This cheerful little guy is mid-waddle with his flippers out and a big smile on his face. It’s the perfect first penguin coloring page for little ones, and a fun chance to ask your kids: why do penguins waddle? (Short legs, chunky bodies, and slippery ice, that’s why!)
Kawaii Penguin
Big sparkly eyes, tiny rosy cheeks (well, once your kid colors them in), and maximum cuteness. This kawaii penguin coloring page is a favorite with kids who love all things adorable. Don’t be surprised if this one ends up on the refrigerator door.
Penguin with a Cozy Scarf and Hat
Yes, real penguins have built-in down jackets and don’t need winter gear. But tell that to this little fellow in his striped scarf and pom-pom beanie. This winter penguin coloring page is also a great one to practice patterns with the stripes on the scarf.
Penguin Sliding on Ice
Belly down, flippers back, wheeee! Penguins really do slide on their bellies to get around faster; it’s called tobogganing, and yes, that is the official scientific term. Your kids will love coloring this speedy little slider.
Two Penguins Hugging
Penguin hugs! This sweet page shows two penguins wrapped in a flipper hug. Real penguins actually do huddle together in giant groups to stay warm in the Antarctic cold, so this one comes with a built-in cuddly science fact.
Baby Penguin Coloring Pages
If regular penguins are cute, baby penguins are off the charts. These baby penguin coloring pages celebrate the fluffiest members of the colony.
Fluffy Penguin Chick
Baby penguins are covered in soft, fluffy gray down instead of the sleek black-and-white feathers they’ll grow later. This chick is all fluff and big eyes. Encourage your kids to use gray or light brown crayons for a realistic look, or hot pink.
Baby Penguin on Dad’s Feet
Here’s the superhero dad moment I promised. Emperor penguin dads balance the egg (and later, the newly hatched chick) on their feet under a warm flap of belly skin for two whole months, through the coldest winter on Earth. This coloring page shows a chick peeking out from its dad’s cozy feet. It just doesn’t get cuter than this.
This page reminds me of the cover of the National Geographic Kids Readers Level 2 book about penguins.
Baby Penguin with a Heart Balloon
A cute baby penguin holding a heart-shaped balloon in its flipper. This one doubles as a sweet Valentine’s Day coloring page, or just an any-day page for kids who love hearts on everything.
Penguin Family
Mom, dad, and a fluffy chick standing together on the ice. Penguin parents take turns keeping the baby warm and going out to sea for food, real teamwork.
Penguin Chicks in a Huddle
When emperor penguin parents head to sea for food, the chicks gather in big fluffy groups called creches to stay warm and safe. This page shows three chicks huddled up together, and it is exactly as cute as it sounds.
Realistic Penguin Coloring Pages
For your older kids, or the ones who correct you when you call a chinstrap an Adelie, these realistic penguin coloring pages feature actual penguin species with more detailed line work. They’re great for animal units, homeschool science, or kids who just love wildlife.
Emperor Penguin
The biggest penguin of them all! Emperor penguins stand nearly 4 feet tall, about the height of a 6-year-old. This realistic penguin coloring page shows off the emperor’s signature golden-yellow neck patches, so keep the yellow and orange crayons handy. Gail Gibbons’s Penguins book pairs well with this page.
Adelie Penguin
Adelie penguins are the classic tuxedo penguins, black and white with distinctive white rings around their eyes. They’re also famously feisty for their small size. This page features an Adelie standing proud on a rocky shore.
Rockhopper Penguin
Meet the rock star of the penguin world. Rockhoppers have wild, spiky yellow crest feathers that look like eyebrows gone rogue, and instead of waddling, they hop from rock to rock. Kids love coloring those crazy crests.
Gentoo Penguin Swimming
Penguins can’t fly through the air, but they absolutely fly through the water. Gentoo penguins are the fastest swimmers of all, reaching speeds around 22 miles per hour. This underwater scene shows a gentoo zooming past bubbles and fish.
Penguin Catching a Fish
Dinner time! This page shows a penguin diving after a fish, which makes up most of its diet, along with krill and squid. It’s a fun way to talk about food chains without anyone realizing it’s a science lesson.
Winter and Christmas Penguin Coloring Pages
Penguins and winter go together like hot cocoa and marshmallows. These festive pages are perfect for December coloring sessions, classroom holiday parties, and snowed-in afternoons.
Christmas Penguin with a Santa Hat
The classic. A jolly penguin wearing a Santa hat, ready for the holidays. This Christmas penguin coloring page basically begs to be colored with red and green and hung on the fridge through New Year’s.
Penguin with Christmas Presents
This little penguin is carrying a wobbly stack of wrapped presents, complete with bows. It’s a great page for pattern practice; every present can get its own wrapping paper design.
Penguin Building a Snowman
A penguin rolling up a snowball to finish its snowman friend, because apparently penguins get lonely too. This one always sparks giggles, and it’s a sweet page to color after a day of actual snowman-building.
Penguin Ice Skating
Scarf flying, one flipper out for balance, this penguin is living its best winter life on the ice. Bonus discussion question for your kids: Do you think penguins would actually be good at ice skating? (Probably yes.)
Penguin and Igloo
A cozy scene of a penguin standing beside an igloo under falling snowflakes. Fun fact to share while coloring: real penguins live in the Southern Hemisphere, and igloos come from the Arctic in the north, so these two would never actually meet.
Tips for Using These Penguin Coloring Pages
- Print on regular printer paper for crayons and colored pencils. If your kids love markers, cardstock keeps the ink from bleeding through.
- For toddlers and preschoolers, start with the cute and easy pages; the thick lines are much more forgiving for little hands.
- Elementary kids (grades 1-5) will enjoy the realistic species pages, especially paired with a penguin book from the library or a nature documentary clip.
- Turn the finished pages into winter decorations! Cut out the colored penguins and string them into a garland, or tape them to the window for an instant penguin colony.
- Laminate a few favorites and use dry-erase markers so kids can color them again and again.
Free Penguin Coloring Pages Download
To download the free penguin coloring pages, simply click on the image below and fill out the form. These coloring pages are for personal or classroom use only. If your friends want a set too, please send them to this post so they can grab their own download!
More Penguin Fun
If your kids finish coloring and are still in full penguin mode, keep the fun going with our Cotton Ball Penguin Craft. It’s fluffy, easy, and toddler-approved. You’ll find even more ideas in our roundup of Penguin Crafts for Kids.
And if coloring is your crew’s happy place, don’t miss our Free Printable Dr. Seuss Coloring Pages for the next quiet-time session.
Now grab those crayons and get coloring. Twenty penguins are waiting, and they’re not going to color themselves!