Friendly Digger Coloring Page

This digger has a face: two round eyes, curved eyebrows and a small smiling mouth sit right on the cab window, so it reads more like a character than a machine. The bendy arm swings out to the left in two straight sections joined by a round bolt, ending in a curved bucket that rests just above a small heaped pile of dirt. Behind the cab is a second, smaller side window, and underneath sit two big wheels inside a caterpillar track, with three little circles showing through the track band. A tidy grille of three curved lines sits low on the front of the cab.

What makes this one worth printing is the mix of shapes. The cab, the bucket and the dirt pile are big, closed spaces a three-year-old can fill in two or three swipes of a crayon without much steering. The track wheels, the bolt joint on the arm and the three circles in the track are much smaller and ask for a steadier hand and a finer crayon or pencil tip. There is also a natural color conversation built in: does the digger stay yellow like the ones on the road, or does your child prefer it red, blue or green, and does the dirt pile stay brown or become something else entirely.

The outlines are thick and the shapes are simple, so this sits on the easier end of the shelf. It suits a child who is just starting to stay inside lines, while the smaller track details give slightly older preschoolers something to slow down for. One sheet, one machine, nothing else competing for attention on the page.