Graveyard Gate with a Bat Coloring Page

A tall cemetery gate standing closed, with spear tips along the top, a shallow arch across it and a square post at each end. Two rounded gravestones show through the bars, and a very small bat crosses the sky in the upper right corner.

The bars are the point of this sheet. There are plenty of them, they run the full height of the page, and the gaps between them are wide and even. That rhythm is satisfying to color and surprisingly forgiving, because a crayon that strays into the next gap barely shows.

Both gravestones are left completely blank. No carving, no dates, no lettering anywhere on the page. Pre-readers are not locked out, and children who do want words write their own, which teachers use for name practice through October.

Color decides what kind of place this is. Dark iron against pale stone reads as a real cemetery. Lighter ironwork turns it into a garden gate and the whole mood tips over. Tufts of grass along the bottom give you somewhere to put green without opening up a lawn to fill. The bat is tiny on purpose, a detail to find rather than a feature.