Katakana "Ku" Coloring Pages

"Ku" is for "Crayon"

Katakana "Ku" is the 3rd letter in the K-group.
The word for this coloring page is "Crayon." You know this one! It is a fun tool for drawing and coloring.
On the left side, we drew 5 crayons lined up bit by bit.
Each crayon has a paper wrapper around it so your hands stay clean.
It will be super fun to color all 5 crayons in different colors!

Katakana "Ku" Comes from the Kanji "久"

Katakana letters were made from parts of Kanji characters.
Katakana "Ku" was born from the first 2 strokes of the Kanji "久."
Hiragana "く" was also made from the same Kanji "久."
Hiragana "く" has 1 stroke, and Katakana "Ku" has 2 strokes, but you can see the same shape in both!

How to Write Katakana "Ku"

You write Katakana "Ku" in 2 strokes.
The 1st stroke is a short line that sweeps from top right to bottom left.
The 2nd stroke starts where the 1st stroke began. Go right, bend at the corner, and make a long sweep down to the left.
The big tip is to make the 2nd stroke's sweep longer than the 1st one, stretching all the way down.
Katakana "Ku" looks a lot like "Ta," but "Ta" has a dot in the middle.

Words with Katakana "Ku"

"Crayon" comes from another language, so we write it in Katakana.
Other words that start with Katakana "Ku" are bear, whale, cookie, Christmas, and jellyfish.
Bears, whales, and jellyfish are animals, while cookies and Christmas are words from other lands.
The small "ッ" in cookie is a little letter that makes a quick pause sound.
It is also fun to draw pictures of things that start with Katakana "Ku" using your crayons!

Katakana "Ku" and "Gu"

If you add two little dots to Katakana "Ku," it becomes "Gu."
You can see this letter in "Goo" when you play Rock-Paper-Scissors!
Write the two little dots at the top right of the letter.
Say Katakana "Ku" and "Gu" out loud to hear how different they sound!

Let's Find Katakana "Ku"

Look at your crayon box or the cover of a storybook, and you might find Katakana "Ku."
Drawing tools have lots of Katakana names, like "Crayon," "Coupy," and "Sketchbook."
When you find Katakana "Ku," trace it with your finger to practice how to write it!

Try using crayons for the big Katakana "Ku"

Color the big Katakana "Ku" with any colors you like.
Just like the word itself, try coloring this coloring page with crayons!
Use a different color crayon for stroke 1 and stroke 2.

Color the 5 crayons like a rainbow

If you color the 5 crayons in different colors like red, yellow, green, blue, and purple, it will look super fun!
Try changing how hard you press between the pointy tip and the paper wrapper.
If you color the wrapper lightly with the same color as the crayon, it will look real!
Leave the lines on the wrapper white to make it look nice and neat.
Pick 5 of your favorite colors to make your very own crayon set!

How to trace the letters

Trace Katakana "Ku" in the boxes at the bottom right with a pencil.
Start stroke 1 and stroke 2 so that they touch each other nicely.
Turn the corner of stroke 2 firmly, and then sweep away smoothly.
When you write all 8 of them, compare them with Katakana "Ta" and make sure there are no extra strokes.

Finally, read the word too

At the top right, next to the big Katakana "Ku", the word "Crayon" is written top-to-bottom.
When you finish coloring, trace it with your finger and say "Crayon" out loud.
When the picture, letter, and word all connect, it gets super easy to remember the letter!
When your coloring page is done, you can stick it on the wall or put it in a binder to save it.

"Crayon" is a French word

"Crayon" is a word that came from French.
In French, it originally means a pencil.
In Japan, we call a stick made of hardened wax for coloring a crayon.

What are crayons made of?

Crayons are made by mixing wax with pigment, which gives them color, and letting it harden.
Because they have wax in them, they feel smooth when you color on paper.
If you paint over them with watercolor paints, the paint will bounce off the crayon parts!

Let's play with wax-resist painting!

Try drawing a picture on white paper with a white crayon.
Then, paint over it with dark watercolor paint, and your hidden picture will pop up!
This is called wax-resist painting.
It is just like magic!

"Pas," a friend of crayons

A art tool very similar to crayons is Pas, which is soft and easy to mix colors.
Pas has more oil than crayons, so it is easy to spread with your fingers and layer colors together.
Even with the same picture, it is fun to color it with both crayons and Pas to see the difference!