Hiragana "Ra" Coloring Pages

"Ra" as in "Rappa" (Trumpet)

The letter on this coloring page is the Hiragana "Ra".
The word is "rappa" (trumpet). The drawing on the left of the 1st page shows a shiny gold instrument, a trumpet, seen from the side.
It has a mouthpiece where you put your lips, a curved tube, 3 buttons you press with your fingers, and a big open bell.
The word "rappa" also uses a small "tsu" and a "pa" with a little circle.

Hiragana "Ra" Came from the Kanji "良"

Hiragana "Ra" got its shape long ago when people wrote the kanji "良" in a quick, curvy way.
Katakana "Ra" was also born from the same kanji, "良".
The dot on top and the curved shape on the bottom of "良" changed into the shape of Hiragana "Ra".

Tips for Writing

You write Hiragana "Ra" in 2 strokes.
The 1st stroke is a short, slanting line at the top.
For the 2nd stroke, draw a line down, go back up a little, swing around to the right in a big curve, and sweep down to the left.
The secret is to leave a space between the 1st stroke and the 2nd stroke.
If you make the round part at the bottom big and full, your Hiragana "Ra" will look nice and grand!

Page 2 Has Lots of Words with Hiragana "Ra"

On the 2nd coloring page, pictures of things that start with Hiragana "Ra" are lined up around a big Hiragana "Ra" in the middle.
Besides the trumpet, you can see a camel with humps, a sea otter floating in the sea, a marble soda bottle called ramune, and a radio for listening to sounds.
The sea otter has its paws together on its belly!

Few Words Start with Hiragana "Ra"

Very few traditional Japanese words start with Hiragana "Ra".
Most of the words on the 2nd page came from foreign countries, like camel and radio.
Instead, there are many words with Hiragana "Ra" in the middle or at the end, like "sakura" (cherry blossom), "sora" (sky), and "karasu" (crow).
Try looking for words with Hiragana "Ra" in them with your family!

How to Enjoy the 2 Coloring Pages

On the 1st page, you can color the trumpet and the big Hiragana "Ra", and practice writing Hiragana "Ra" by tracing it.
On the 2nd page, you can take your time coloring while finding all kinds of Hiragana "Ra" words.
Count the buttons on both trumpets to see if there are 3 of them!

Color the big Hiragana "Ra" in your favorite colors

Try coloring inside the lines of the big Hiragana "Ra" on the top right with your favorite colors.
If you change colors for each line, like red for the first short stroke and blue for the second stroke, you can easily see that the two lines do not touch.
Matching the trumpet with a gold or yellow Hiragana "Ra" would look wonderful too!

Make the trumpet shine in gold

If you color the trumpet with yellow and bright yellow-orange, it will look like shiny gold.
If you leave a thin white line in the middle of the tube, it will look like it is flashing bright!
If you make the edges a little darker with ocher or orange, the tube will look nice and round.
If you color the inside of the bell a bit darker, it will look deep like a real hole.

Color the animals and items on the second page

On the second page, it is good to color the camel light brown, the sea otter dark brown, and the lion's mane orange.
If you color the ramune soda bottle lightly with light blue, it will look just like glass!
For the ramen, make the soup ocher and the swirl on the naruto fish cake pink.

Trace each letter carefully, one by one

In the boxes at the bottom right, there are 8 light gray Hiragana "Ra".
Hold your pencil correctly and trace over the gray lines slowly so you do not go outside the lines.
Using the lines in the middle of the box as guideposts makes it easy to balance your letter.
Do not forget to leave a small space between the first short stroke and the second stroke.
Every time you finish writing one, compare it with the big Hiragana "Ra" model!

Make sound by vibrating your lips

You play the trumpet by placing your lips against it and vibrating your lips.
If you just blow air into it, it will not make a nice sound.
By changing how tight you hold your lips, you can make high sounds and low sounds.

If you uncurl the coiled tube

A trumpet's tube is wound up in a coil, but if you stretch it out straight, it is about 1 meter and 40 centimeters long.
When you press the 3 buttons, the path the air takes gets longer or shorter, and that changes the pitch of the sound.
They coil up the long tube so it is an easy size for you to hold!

Flowers shaped like a trumpet

Among the daffodils that bloom in spring, some flowers have a trumpet-like shape in the middle.
Because of that shape, they are called trumpet daffodils.
Morning glory flowers are shaped like trumpets too, aren't they?

The radio in radio calisthenics

The radio on the second page is a device that lets you hear sounds sent as radio waves from far away.
Have you ever done radio calisthenics on a summer vacation morning?
Radio calisthenics were originally made for everyone to move their bodies together along with a radio broadcast.