Hiragana "A" Coloring Pages

"A" is for "ant"

Hiragana "A"Hiragana "A"Hiragana "A"" is the very first letter in "A-I-U-E-O".
The first coloring page features "Hiragana "A"".AntIt shows an ant carrying a tiny piece as the "A" in "Ant."
Ants are familiar insects that you often see walking in a line on the ground in parks or gardens.
See if you can find the six thin legs and two curled antennae in the coloring page, too!

2 Coloring pages

There are 2 Hiragana "A" coloring pages on this page.
The first page shows an ant carrying a piece of food on the left. On the top right, there is a big outlined "あ" and the word "あり". On the bottom right, there is a row of boxes for you to trace "あ".
The second one is a coloring page with a big Hiragana "A" in the middle, surrounded by lots of pictures of words that start with Hiragana "A".
candy,Morning glory,Footprints,ClamEach picture has its name written under it.
As you color, try reading each name out loud, one by one.
On both coloring pages, the big "あ" is drawn as an outline, so you can color inside it!
If you color while looking at the pictures and words together, it connects the letters with the words. That makes them super easy to remember!

"Hiragana "A"" comes from the character "安"

Hiragana characters were created a long time ago when people started writing kanji in a simpler, curvier way.
The Kanji that Hiragana "A" came from is "Cheap" is the one.
If you write the kanji "安" smoothly and loosely, it gradually starts to look like Hiragana "A"!
If you look at "安" and "あ" together with a grown-up, can you find where they look similar?

Tips for writing Hiragana "A"

"A" is3 strokesIt’s a character you write in Hiragana "A"!
The 1st stroke is a line from left to right, and the 2nd stroke goes from top to bottom, curving just a little bit as you draw it down.
For the third stroke, cross the second stroke, make a big loop, and finish toward the bottom right.
If you write the round parts loosely without flattening them, you will make a pretty Hiragana "A".

Let's look for words that start with "あ"!

Words that start with "A" includeRain.Leg,head,Duck,blue skyand more.
Can you find more of them?
It is also fun to try playing a game like *shiritori* with your family, where you take turns saying words that start with Hiragana "A".

Color the Big "A" in Any Color You Like

Color inside the big outlined "あ" with your favorite colors.
If you change colors for each stroke—like red for stroke 1, blue for stroke 2, and yellow for stroke 3—it will help you remember the stroke order too.
To keep inside the lines, try coloring near the edges first for a nice, neat finish!

Make the Ant Stand Out with Dark Colors

If you color the ant's body with black or dark brown, it will look just like a real one!
Its body has three parts—the head, thorax, and abdomen—so changing the shade just a little bit helps show its shape.
If you make the piece it is carrying white or light yellow, it will pop against the black ant!

On Page 2, Choose Colors for Each Word

We recommend red and green stripes for the candy, blue or purple for the morning glory, and light brown for the clam shell.
Thinking about their real colors as you color will help you remember the words and pictures together!

Trace Each Letter One by One with a Pencil

In the bottom-right boxes, there are 8 light gray "あ"s in a row.
Hold your pencil correctly and trace over the gray lines slowly.
The dotted lines inside the boxes show you where the middle of the letter is.
Try to make sure the rounded part of Hiragana "A" goes near the bottom right of the box.
It is totally okay to go slow at first, so write each one carefully.
When you finish tracing, check to see if you stayed inside the gray lines.
It is a great idea to draw a flower circle around the one you wrote best!

Worker ants are all female

Ants carrying food outside the nest are called "worker ants."
Actually, worker ants are all female!
Inside the nest, there is a queen ant that lays eggs, and worker ants carry food and take care of the babies.

Smell trails

Ants walk in a line because they follow smell trails left by their friends.
When an ant finds food, it leaves a smell on the ground on its way back to the nest.
Other ants can follow that smell to get right to the food!

"A-I-U-E-O" are the 5 vowels

The 5 sounds "A, I, U, E, O" are called vowels.
Many other sounds include these vowels, like "Ka" being "k" plus "A", and "Sa" being "s" plus "A".
If you say "Ka, Sa, Ta, Na", can you tell that your mouth makes the "A" shape at the end?

Morning glories bloom in the morning

The morning glory on the second coloring page opens its flowers on summer mornings.
The flowers close around noon, so it got a name that means "morning face"!
It is a flower that many kids grow from seeds and watch at elementary school.