Smiling sea turtle with spotted flippers on a beach with starfish, seashell, waves, and clouds

Smiling Sea Turtle on a Shell-Strewn Beach

A big-eyed sea turtle rests on warm sand, framed by a starfish, tiny shells, rolling wave lines, and puffy clouds.

🎨 How to color it

Color the turtle’s shell moss green, the spotted flippers seafoam green, the starfish coral orange, and the little scallop shell soft pink. Use chunky crayons to fill the large shell plates and wide flippers first; it is okay if toddler marks hop over the bold lines. Try making the wavy water stripes two blues, light blue then ocean blue, like the tide is quietly coming closer.

The story behind this coloring page

Della Hears the Sand — Every day, slow Della tapped the sand: pat, pat, hush. She wanted to hear the tiny clinks under the beach. Read the full story →

Every day, slow Della tapped the sand: pat, pat, hush. She wanted to hear the tiny clinks under the beach. One day, one starfish made no sound at all.

Because of that, Della leaned close. Because of that, the sand gave a teeny ring-ring! “Who’s there?” she whispered. Out rolled a pearl no bigger than a bubble, shining like moon milk. Della smiled and tapped again: pat, pat, hush. Next time you see the quiet starfish, can you keep its secret?