4th of July Coloring Pages

Color the sky first, not the fireworks. Cover the whole background in deep indigo or navy in two or three light layers, then leave the burst trails as bare paper with the brightest color only at their centers, fading outward. A white gel pen is the most reliable way to add sparks over a dark sky afterwards, since no pencil is lighter than the paper.

Thirteen stripes, for the thirteen original colonies, seven red and six white, beginning and ending with red. Fifty white stars on the blue canton, one per state, arranged in alternating rows of six and five. The current fifty-star design has been in use since 1960, when Hawaii became a state.

The waving flag, the bald eagle and the single fireworks burst all use bold shapes with plenty of open space, and work from about age four. The parade scene has many small figures and instruments, and suits ages eight and up.

No. The name comes from an older sense of "balde," meaning white, a reference to the white head feathers on an adult bird. Juveniles are entirely mottled brown and do not develop the white head and tail until around four or five years old, which is a useful detail if you want to color a young eagle instead.

The Veterans Day coloring pages set shares this whole patriotic image set and adds poppies, saluting figures and a blank thank you banner. It is the one to print on 11 November, where these sheets belong to 4 July.