A rainbow is a little bit of natural magic that appears just after a storm. 🌈 For a child, seeing it stretch across the sky is always a small event: you stop, you look up, you count the colours. And when you add galloping unicorns, smiling flowers and adorable little animals, the joy of colouring is even greater! Here is a selection of 7 free rainbow colouring pages to print: galloping unicorns, a soft little baby unicorn, a winged unicorn, a kawaii cat and rabbit, and cheerful flowers, all gathered beneath a beautiful rainbow.
Each drawing is made for children aged 4 to 10, with bold outlines and large areas to colour. 🖍️ Print the sheet, grab the felt-tips or coloured pencils, and enjoy a calm moment with your child. At the end of the article, you will also find a little scientific explanation of the rainbow, some colour tips and three extra activities to keep the discovery going.
🌈 My 7 rainbow colouring pages to print
Here are the 7 drawings. The A4 portrait format prints with no special settings on most printers, so simply choose your favourite sheet and print it from your browser.
🦄 The unicorn in front of its rainbow
An adorable unicorn, mane in the wind, trotting in front of a big rainbow with several bands, framed by soft, fluffy clouds. With its large areas and a pretty bed of leaves in the foreground, this is the ideal colouring page from age 4. Tip: it’s the perfect chance to learn the red-orange-yellow-green-blue-indigo-violet order on the bands of the arch.
☀️ The unicorn leaping under the sun
A joyful unicorn caught mid-leap in front of a huge rainbow, with a smiling sun in the corner and little stars and hearts all around. The outlines are thick and the surfaces generous: a colouring page loved from age 4. Tip: encourage your child to choose a different mane each time (pastel, neon, gradient).
💛 The soft little baby unicorn
A lovely baby unicorn lying down, its mane decorated with a pretty star, resting in front of a rainbow and surrounded by little stars, hearts and swirls. With its many small details, this drawing is better suited from age 6 for children who like to take their time. Tip: a perfect colouring page for playing with pastel shades.
💖 The rearing unicorn on the rainbow
A proud unicorn rearing up, standing right at the top of a rainbow, surrounded by a cloud of little hearts and fluffy clouds. The areas are nice and clear and the outlines are sharp: a colouring page recommended from age 5. Tip: let your child invent a different coat colour with every print.
🌈 The winged unicorn at the end of the rainbow
A winged unicorn perched right at the top of a big rainbow, with a smiling sun, clouds and a little flowering pot at the foot of the arch. A lovely way to bring up the legend of the treasure hidden at the end of the rainbow! Ideal from age 5. Tip: ask your child what they would like to find at the end of their own rainbow.
🐱 The kawaii cat and rabbit
A little cat and a rabbit, both round and fitted with tiny wings, fluttering among the stars, butterflies and a smiling cloud, just above a rainbow. An ultra-cute kawaii style, perfect from age 5. Tip: each butterfly can have its own palette, the ideal chance to work on symmetrical colour pairs.
🌻 The smiling flowers and the rainbow
Two pretty flowers with laughing faces growing in the grass, under a bright sun, with a few birds and a big rainbow in the background. Its large round shapes make it a gentle, easy-going colouring page, suitable from age 4. Tip: a drawing that’s ideal for practising gradients on the big petals.
💡 Did you know? Where does a rainbow come from?
A rainbow appears when the sun shines while it’s still raining a little, or just after a shower. To see it, you need to stand between the sun (behind you) and the rain (in front of you). If you turned to face the sun, you wouldn’t see it: a rainbow always forms on the opposite side.
What happens is a very pretty little piece of physics. Sunlight looks white, but it’s actually made up of every colour mixed together. When this light enters a raindrop, it bends slightly on the way in, bounces off the back of the drop, then comes back out, bending again. With each pass, the colours spread a little further apart: red on one side, violet on the other, and all the other colours in between. Millions of drops do this at the same time, and that’s what creates the big colourful arch in the sky.
A rainbow always has 7 colours in the same order, from the outside in: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. You can remember this order with the English acronym ROYGBIV, or with a sentence like “Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain”. With a little practice, your child will soon be able to name them all in the right order.
🎨 Colour tips for a great rainbow
A few simple tips to help your child get a lovely result, with no frustration and no colours bleeding everywhere.
- Stick to the exact order of the 7 colours. From the top to the bottom of the arch: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. It’s the perfect chance to learn this order through play.
- Work on the gradients. Where two bands meet (between orange and yellow, for example), go over it gently with the neighbouring colour to soften the boundary. A guaranteed “real rainbow” effect.
- Choose thick paper. For felt-tips, 120 gsm paper stops the colour soaking through to the back. On standard 80 gsm, coloured pencils are a better choice.
- Mix your tools. Coloured pencils for the bands and large areas (a soft result), felt-tips for the details (manes, stars, hearts). The contrast gives the drawing more depth.
- Print two copies. The first colouring page is for practice, the second for the final version. Your child can experiment with no pressure.
🎭 Extra rainbow activities
Colouring is a great starting point. To take things further, here are three simple activities that keep the magic of the rainbow going at home.
- Make a rainbow with a glass of water. Put a glass full of water on the edge of a sunny table, with a sheet of white paper behind it. Tilt the glass until you see a mini rainbow projected onto the paper. It’s exactly the same physical principle as in the sky: light passing through water splits into colours.
- Paint a rainbow with paper tissues. Fold several paper tissues on top of one another, dip the tip into glasses of coloured water (red, yellow, blue, etc.), and watch the colours rise up and blend. Once dry, you get a very soft, natural watercolour effect.
- Thread a rainbow necklace. Buy a bag of colourful multicoloured beads and an elastic thread. Your child chooses the order of the colours, following the ROYGBIV sequence for a real rainbow necklace. A wonderfully complete fine-motor activity.
❓ Frequently asked questions
🌈 How many colours are there in a rainbow?
A rainbow contains 7 distinct colours: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. It was the physicist Isaac Newton who settled on this number in the 17th century. With the naked eye, you can often make out 5 or 6; the most subtle ones (such as indigo) take a little practice to spot between blue and violet.
🎨 What is the exact order of the rainbow’s colours?
From the outside of the arch to the inside: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. Red is always on top, violet always at the bottom. To help your child remember, the English acronym ROYGBIV works beautifully, and you can pair it with a fun memory sentence to make it stick.
👶 From what age can a child do a rainbow colouring page?
From age 4 for the models with large areas (the leaping unicorn, the smiling flowers or the unicorn in front of its rainbow). The more detailed colouring pages (the baby unicorn, the kawaii cat and rabbit) are better suited from age 6. For the youngest ones, an adult can help by showing how to hold the pencil or by starting a band.
📄 What paper should I print the colouring pages on?
A standard A4 sheet of 80 gsm is perfectly fine for coloured pencils. For felt-tips, go for a thicker 120 gsm or 160 gsm paper to stop the colour soaking through. The portrait (vertical) format prints with no special settings on any home printer.
🖼️ How can I keep the finished rainbow colouring pages?
Three simple options: frame the sheet in a basic A4 frame to decorate the bedroom, laminate the colouring page with clear adhesive film to turn it into a place mat, or gather several colouring pages in a “my finest works” album. This gives value to your child’s work and encourages them to do more.
🏫 Can I use these colouring pages at school or at a holiday club?
Yes, these colouring pages are free for personal, school or holiday-club use. You can print the sheet for your whole class or group. Please don’t redistribute the files on other websites: share the link to the article instead.
📚 Going further
Did your children enjoy these rainbow colouring pages? Keep the adventure going with our other free sheets: unicorn colouring pages to print, flower colouring pages, or explore the big coloring-and-printable-games hub that gathers hundreds of drawings sorted by theme: animals, seasons, festivals, characters. And to turn this moment into a mini science lesson, learn all about the order of the rainbow’s colours together.
