Sea turtle swimming past kelp, bubbles, rocks, and a starfish on the seafloor

Sea Turtle Gliding Through Kelp

A calm sea turtle glides between tall kelp fronds while bubbles rise above a rocky seafloor dotted with a starfish.

🎨 How to color it

Color the sea turtle’s shell olive green with amber scutes, the tall kelp fronds seaweed green, the bubbles pale blue, and the starfish coral orange. Use sharp colored pencils for the many shell plates and leaf veins, then switch to broader strokes for the open water and sandy rocks. Try making the bubbles lighter at the top and darker at the bottom so they look as if they’re wobbling upward past the turtle.

The story behind this coloring page

Orla’s Slow-Bloom Signal — Every day, Orla paddled the kelp canyon with a dull gray seed bead tucked beneath the front rim of her shell, tapping it once on each stone arch. Tink. Read the full story →

Every day, Orla paddled the kelp canyon with a dull gray seed bead tucked beneath the front rim of her shell, tapping it once on each stone arch. Tink. Tink. Tink. She wanted the canyon gates to open before the sardine run flashed past, but the older turtles only laughed at the bead. It looked like a pebble that had forgotten how to shine.

Until one day, the water boomed with faraway fins, and silver sardines poured toward the closed rocks. Because Orla kept tapping instead of rushing, she heard one arch answer with a hollow bong. Because of that, she pressed the bead into a tiny crack, and the kelp around her snapped upright, green and bright, like flags in a storm.

“Wait for the third bubble,” Orla whispered. Pop… pop… pop! The canyon gates rolled open, and the sardines streamed through in a glittering river. Next time you spot the bubbles near Orla’s shell, see if you can count the slow signal: tink, tink, tink.