Hiragana "Te" Coloring Pages

The "Te" in "Tebukuro"

This coloring page is for practicing the hiragana "Te".
On the left, there is a pair of "gloves" knitted with yarn.
They have striped ribbed cuffs at the wrists, and a snowflake pattern on the back of the hands.
In the top right, there is a big outlined "Te", and in the bottom right, there are boxes for tracing practice.

2 Coloring pages for Hiragana "Te"

The first page is a coloring page with a mitten picture, a big "て", and tracing lines all together.
The second page is a coloring page with a big "て" surrounded by pictures of words that start with "て".
There are drawings of a letter, a ladybug, a magic trick, and the weather.
Try reading the names to find out which picture is which!

Hiragana "Te" was born from "天"

Hiragana are letters that people long ago created by simplifying Kanji.
The original Kanji for Hiragana "Te" is "天", which can be read as "sora" or "ten" (sky).
It is said that as people wrote "天" faster and faster, only the top line and the bottom curve remained, making the shape of Hiragana "Te" we use today.

Tips for writing Hiragana "Te"

"Hiragana "Te"" is a character drawn with just 1 stroke.
First, draw a line from left to right, going slightly upward.
At the right end, turn back to the left, go down at a slant, and make a nice round curve.
To make it look great, try to put the widest part of the curve on the left side of the character.
The secret is to make the top line a bit long and keep the bottom curve inside the length of that top line!

Words that start with Hiragana "Te"

Words that start with "te" include te (hand), tetsubou (horizontal bar), tekkyou (iron bridge), and tempura.
If you add two small dots (dakuten) to Hiragana "Te", it becomes "de". That is the "de" in "densha" (train)!
It is fun that just saying "te" all by itself means your "hand"!
Try making rock and paper shapes with your hands while you say words that have Hiragana "Te" in them.

The word "Tebukuro"

The word "tebukuro" (mittens) comes from combining "te" (hand) and "fukuro" (bag).
It is called "tebukuro" because it is a bag for your hands!
When these two words join together, the sound changes from "fu" to "bu."
"Amagasa" (umbrella) made from "ame" (rain) and "kasa" (umbrella) is another word just like this.
When you put on your mittens on a cold day, remember Hiragana "Te"!

Color the Big Hiragana "Te" in Warm Colors

Color in the big outlined Hiragana "Te" with your favorite color.
It is also nice to use warm colors like red or orange to match the mittens.
If you change colors between the top line and the bottom curve, you can easily see where to turn the stroke.

Color the Mittens Like They Are Knitted with Two Colors

If you color the mittens in red or dark blue and leave the snowflakes white, they will look like real knitted patterns.
It looks super cute if you color every other stripe on the ribbed wrist in a different color from the main part.
Make the left and right mittens the same color so they look like a matching pair.

For the Second Sheet, Remember the Real Colors of Things

For the ladybug, a red back with black dots is the well-known color.
Make the letter envelope white or light brown, the weather sun yellow or orange, and the umbrella any color you like.
For the magic trick, make the top hat black and leave the popping-out dove white to make it look just like real magic.

Tracing Practice

In the bottom right boxes, there are 8 light gray Hiragana "Te" characters lined up.
Hold your pencil correctly and trace them slowly so you do not go outside the gray lines.
The vertical and horizontal dotted lines in the boxes show you the middle of the letter. Use these dotted lines to check where to start and where to stop your stroke.
After you write one, compare it with the big sample letter.
You do not have to write all 8 at once. Take your time and write at your own pace, like doing 2 each day.

Mittens Have No Separated Fingers

A glove that only has the thumb separate, with the other four fingers grouped together, is called a mitten.
Because your fingers stay together, people say mittens are warmer than five-finger gloves.
Mittens are often used for little children because they are so easy to put on!

The Town of Gloves

Higashikagawa City in Kagawa Prefecture is a town very famous for making gloves.
Most of the gloves made in Japan come from this town.
They even make ski gloves and baseball batting gloves there!

The Picture Book "The Mitten"

Do you know the picture book "The Mitten", based on a Ukrainian folktale?
It is a story about a mouse, a frog, a rabbit, a fox, and even a bear squeezing one after another into a single mitten dropped in the forest!
The pictures of the mitten getting bigger and bigger are super fun, so give it a read!

Snowflakes Are Hexagons

The snowflakes shown as the pattern on Hiragana "Te" are all based on a hexagon shape.
That is because when water gets cold and freezes high up in the sky, it grows outward in six directions.
On a snowy day, try catching some snow on black paper or your gloves, and look at it with a magnifying glass!