Sunday school coloring pages and a class coloring book

The best Sunday school coloring pages are the ones that match this week's lesson, so start with the sheets in your own curriculum and fill gaps with free pages from children's ministry sites or simple drawings of your own. For a keepsake at the end of the year, a class coloring book where each child has a page (a photo turned into line art or their own self-portrait, with a caption about a favorite story or something they are thankful for) is cheap to make and something families keep. Get parents' written permission before any child's photo goes into it.

This guide covers finding pages that fit your lesson and tradition, making a class book step by step, photo permissions for church programs, and other church class gift ideas.

Finding coloring pages that fit your lesson

Churches teach the same stories in different ways, so the best source is the one that already matches your tradition.

• Your curriculum publisher. Most children's curricula include a coloring sheet or activity page with each lesson. Check the teacher's guide or the publisher's website before searching elsewhere.
• Children's ministry sites. Several sites post coloring pages organized by Bible story and church season, some free and some behind a subscription. Read the page before printing it: wording and theology vary, and your pastor or children's director may have a preference.
• Draw your own. A simple scene with thick outlines (a boat on waves, a lamb, a star over a stable, a family at a table) is easy to sketch and photocopy. Older kids can draw pages for the preschool room, which gives them a job too.
• Verse pages. Write a short verse in large hollow letters and let kids color it in. One that fits a children's class is Matthew 19:14, where Jesus says "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them" (NIV). Use the translation your church reads from.

Avoid printing pages featuring cartoon characters from movies or TV. The U.S. Copyright Office notes that copyright protects original artistic works, and a church handout is still a copy. Original drawings and pages your curriculum licenses to you are the safe choice.

For preschoolers, choose pages with big shapes and few details. Our guide to coloring for preschoolers covers what small hands can manage.

How to make a class coloring book

A class book takes about two Sundays of collecting and an evening of assembling.

1. Choose a theme. "Our class," "Things we are thankful for," "My favorite Bible story," or "Our year at church." A theme gives every page a caption.
2. Send a permission note home (see the next section) before anyone takes photos.
3. Collect one image per child. Either a photo a parent approves or a self-portrait the child draws in class. Self-portraits need no photo permission at all and are often the most loved pages.
4. Turn photos into line art. Our free photo-to-coloring-page guide shows how with free tools.
5. Add a caption under each child's page: first name only, plus their favorite story or what they are thankful for.
6. Add shared pages. The church building, the teachers, a verse page, a "draw your family" page at the back.
7. Print one-sided on the heaviest paper your copier takes, staple or bind, and send one home with each family. Our printing guide helps the lines come out dark.

Our class coloring book guide covers the same process for school classrooms in more detail, including templates.

Photos and permissions for church programs

Church insurers take this seriously and so should a Sunday school teacher. Brotherhood Mutual, which insures ministries, advises that publishing photos of children without permission from a parent or legal guardian could get a ministry into trouble, and recommends informing parents ahead of time and asking them to submit a signed photo use agreement or a "do not photograph" form. The same guidance says the form should note whether it covers a one-time event or an ongoing activity, that a parent or legal guardian should sign until a youth is 18, and that children in foster care need special consideration.

In practice:

• Check whether your church already has a photo policy or form, and use it.
• Use first names only in the book.
• Offer a self-portrait page to any family that would rather not share a photo.
• Keep the book for families, not the church website, unless the form covers that too.

Our classroom photo consent guide has a sample permission note you can adapt.

Church class gift ideas

Gift	Cost	Notes
Class coloring book	Paper and ink	Every child is in it; see above
Picture Bible or Bible story book	Moderate	Choose one your church is comfortable with, the same for every child
Verse bookmark with each child's name	Very low	Laminate it so it survives
Group photo card signed by the teachers	Very low	A note to each child on the back
Crayons with a few lesson pages	Low	Look for the AP Seal on crayons

On crayons: the Art and Creative Materials Institute says products with its AP Seal are certified after toxicological testing by board-certified toxicologists. It is the one label worth checking on a bulk crayon order. Our teacher gift from class guide covers the reverse direction, when families want to thank the volunteers.

If nobody has time to assemble a book, Colorkin's Classroom Edition ($199) makes a coloring storybook for a group of up to 24 children, where each child stars on a page and the PDF is licensed for classroom printing. Pages are drafted with AI illustration tools from photos parents send and checked and finished by a person. The homemade book above costs almost nothing and is just as welcome.

More ideas for teachers and group leaders are in the classrooms and groups hub.

Questions parents ask