Hiragana "Go" Coloring Pages

"Go" in "Gohan"

The letter on this coloring page is the Hiragana "Go".
The word is "Gohan" (rice). The picture on the left of the first page shows a bowl full of rice with a pair of chopsticks right beside it.
You can even see a few little grains of rice.
It is the warm, steaming rice that you eat almost every day!

Hiragana "Go" Came From "Ko"

Hiragana "Go" is made by adding two little dots (dakuten) to "Ko".
The original letter "Ko" got its shape long ago when people wrote the Kanji "己" in a simple, cursive way.
When you add the dots, the clear sound "Ko" changes into the buzzing sound "Go".
Try saying "Ko" and Hiragana "Go" out loud while touching your throat! Can you feel your throat vibrate when you say Hiragana "Go"?

Tips for Writing

The base letter "Ko" has 2 strokes.
For the first stroke, draw a short horizontal line at the top, and make a small upward flick to the bottom left at the end.
For the second stroke, draw a line at the bottom that gently curves from the left and stretches out to the right.
Making the bottom line a little longer than the top line gives it great balance!
Finally, add two dots on the top right. Put them neatly in the open space to the right of the first stroke.

Page 2 is Full of Words with Hiragana "Go"

On the second coloring page, lots of pictures for words starting with Hiragana "Go" surround the big letter in the middle.
Besides the same gohan (rice) from page 1, you will find gobou (burdock root) that grows underground, tiny goma (sesame seeds), and a gomibako (trash can) with a lid.
There are even Katakana words mixed in, like "Gorira" (gorilla) and "Goguru" (goggles)!

Let's Play with Words that Have Hiragana "Go"

Some other words starting with Hiragana "Go" are gochisou (a grand feast), gomen-ne (I am sorry), and gorogoro (rolling around or rumbling).
There are also many words with Hiragana "Go" at the end, like "Ringo" (apple), "Ichigo" (strawberry), and "Tamago" (egg).
"Gohan" means cooked rice, but it also means a full meal, like "Asa-gohan" (breakfast) and "Yoru-gohan" (dinner).
What are you having for mealtime today?

How to Enjoy the 2 Coloring Pages

On the first page, color the rice and the big Hiragana "Go", then trace over the letters to practice writing Hiragana "Go".
On the second page, you can take your time coloring while discovering all kinds of Hiragana "Go" words.
It is fun to paint the rice bowl on the second page in a different color from the first one!

Color the big "Hiragana "Go"" with your favorite colors

Try coloring inside the lines of the big "Hiragana "Go"" at the top right with any color you like.
If you use different colors for the 1st and 2nd strokes, you can easily see the difference in length between the two lines.
If you use a different color for the dots to make them stand out, it is easy to see how it is different from "こ".

Use the color of the paper for the rice

It is best to leave the rice white.
If you add shadows only around the edges with light gray or light cream color, it will look fluffy and piled high.
For the rice bowl, choose a color that makes the white rice stand out, like navy blue, red, or brown.
It is also cute to draw flower or polka dot patterns on the bowl.
Color the chopsticks brown or red.

For the 2nd page, think of the colors of real food

On the 2nd page, it is good to color the burdock root light brown, and the sesame seeds black or cream color.
Color the bitter melon green, and add a little darker green on the bumpy parts to make it look real.
Color the trash can gray or blue, and color the trash inside with lots of different colors.

Trace each letter carefully, one by one

In the boxes at the bottom right, there are 8 light gray "Hiragana "Go""s in a row.
Hold your pencil correctly, and trace slowly over the gray lines so you do not go outside of them.
If you use the vertical and horizontal lines in the middle of the box as a guide, it is easy to balance your letter.
For the small upward flick in the 1st stroke, flick toward the start of the 2nd stroke.
Every time you write one, compare it with the big "Hiragana "Go"" example.

How many grains are in a bowl?

They say there are about 3,000 grains of rice in just one bowl of cooked rice.
Each grain of rice comes from a single seed of a rice plant in the rice field.
It takes a lot of rice plants to make just one bowl of rice!

The word for rice means eighty-eight

If you break apart the Japanese word for rice, "米", it looks like the numbers "eight," "ten," and "eight" (88).
Because of this, people say it takes 88 steps of hard work to grow rice.
This story reminds us to eat every single grain of rice without leaving any behind.

From uncooked rice to fluffy rice

Hard rice soaks up water and then gets cooked over heat to turn into soft, fluffy rice.
When cooked, the grains of rice soak up the water and weigh about twice as much as before.
Now, you can cook yummy rice just by pressing a button on the rice cooker!

Countries that eat burdock root

The burdock root on the second page is a vegetable where you eat the long root that grows under the ground.
It is very popular in Japan, but not many other countries in the world eat burdock root.
People often eat it in dishes like Kinpira Burdock or pork soup.