Colouring bookmarks

Four to a sheet, sixteen in total

Each A4 sheet holds four bookmarks. Two of the sheets are drawn for younger children, with big shapes and thick outlines, and two are detailed line work for older ones.

The split matters more than it might sound, and I got it wrong the first time. Hand a five year old the patterned lion and you get two minutes of effort and a discarded sheet. Hand a nine year old the cartoon dinosaur and you get a look.

Colour first, cut second

Obvious once said, and the wrong way round is the commonest mistake. Cutting first turns one manageable sheet into four small pieces of paper that slide off the table.

The outlines are plain lines rather than dashes on purpose, so the line vanishes as you cut along it. A dashed cutting guide leaves little notches down the edge unless somebody cuts perfectly, and nobody cuts perfectly.

This is the one to print on card

Most of what’s on this site is fine on ordinary copier paper, and the printing guide says so. Bookmarks are the exception, because they get handled every single day and paper creases inside a week.

160gsm card if you have it. If you don’t, print on paper and cover both sides with clear tape once it has been coloured in. It isn’t elegant, a child can do it themselves, and it works.

Where they earn their keep

Wet breaks. The last week of term. Hospital waiting rooms, where they take up no space in a bag. Summer reading challenges, where a child who has coloured their own bookmark is noticeably keener to have something to use it in.

They also make a decent small gift from a child to a grandparent, which is the sort of thing that gets kept in a book for years.

Setting up a session in five minutes

Put out the sheet, a small box of pencils or felt tips, and a pair of child scissors with a blunt tip. Keep the sheet flat and away from the water glass. Start with colouring only, and leave the cutting for later, when the colouring is finished and the bookmark has a bit of character to it.

Making them last

A bookmark gets handled every day, so it wears out quickly if it’s only printed on paper. Slip the finished piece into a clear sticky laminate or a document wallet, and trim the edge with scissors. A hole punched at the top with a length of ribbon or wool through it means it hangs off the book instead of falling out of it.

Who should do the cutting

Children from around five can cut along a thick line with child scissors, and they usually do a neater job than you expect. If the cuts are going wrong, cut the corners yourself and let them do the straight edges. A child who has coloured and cut their own bookmark is far more likely to use it than one who has been handed a finished one.

A note on the detailed ones

The patterned animals and the dragons sheet are drawn at a level of detail that suits older children, and honestly a fair number of adults. If you’re colouring alongside your child rather than supervising, take that sheet. A finished bookmark also gives a reading log somewhere useful to live, which is more than most bookmarks manage.