Donkey Coloring Pages
Donkeys have been carrying things for people for thousands of years, ever since they were tamed from wild donkeys in north-east Africa. They're tougher than they look and a lot more clever than their reputation, and their famous "hee-haw" is really two sounds: the "hee" breathing in and the "haw" breathing out.
Most donkeys are a soft grey-brown with a pale nose, pale rings around the eyes and a lighter belly. Look for a dark stripe running down the back and another across the shoulders. Together they make a cross, and there's an old legend about how it got there in the Palm Sunday section below.
Jump to: Preschool | Baby Donkeys | More Donkeys | Famous Donkeys
Preschool Donkeys
Big simple shapes are easier for little hands, and the labelled donkey is handy for early readers.
Baby Donkeys
A baby donkey is called a foal, and it's usually up on its wobbly legs and following its mother within an hour of being born.
more Donkeys
Those big ears aren't just for hearing. Wild donkeys come from hot, dry deserts, and their long ears help them shed heat and pick up the call of another donkey from far across the sand.
Famous Donkeys from Stories, History and Mythology
Donkey, Donkey, Old and Grey
In this old nursery rhyme, a grey donkey wakes up the whole world every morning with his bray. Anyone who's lived near a donkey can tell you it's a very effective alarm clock...
Donkey, Donkey nursery rhyme activities
The Bremen Town Musicians
When his master decides he's too old to work, a donkey sets off to become a musician in the town of Bremen. Along the way he collects a dog, a cat and a rooster, and the four of them scare a gang of robbers out of their cosy house by stacking up on each other's backs and making the loudest racket they can. The funny thing is, they never actually make it to Bremen...
Bremen Town Musicians activities
Eeyore
Eeyore is the gloomy donkey from A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh books. Christopher Robin Milne got a toy donkey as a Christmas gift, and his dad turned it into one of the most famous characters in children's books...
Mary's Donkey
Here's a surprise: the Christmas story in the Bible never actually mentions a donkey. Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem, and artists have pictured Mary riding a patient little donkey for so many centuries that it's become part of the story...
Palm Sunday
Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey while crowds waved palm branches to welcome him. An old legend says that's where the dark cross on a donkey's back came from, a mark left as a thank-you to the animal who carried him...
Balaam's Donkey
The prophet Balaam was riding off on an errand he shouldn't have taken when his donkey suddenly refused to go any further. She could see an angel blocking the road even though Balaam couldn't. When he got cross with her, the donkey did something no donkey had ever done before...
Lucius from The Golden Donkey
Lucius was a young man in an old Roman novel who was much too curious about magic. He watched the enchantress Pamphile rub on a magic ointment and turn into an owl, then tried it himself with the wrong jar and turned into a donkey instead. The cure was simple enough, just eat a few roses, but getting his hooves on some turned into a very long adventure...
Bottom (A Midsummer Night's Dream)
In Shakespeare's comedy, the mischievous fairy Puck gives a weaver named Bottom a donkey's head as a prank. Bottom has no idea anything's changed, and to make things even sillier, the fairy queen falls head over heels for him under a magic spell...
Dapple (Don Quixote)
Sancho Panza rode a grey donkey called Dapple while following the knight Don Quixote on his very odd adventures across Spain. Dapple gets stolen partway through the story, and Sancho's happy reunion with him is one of the sweetest bits of the whole book...
Platero (Platero and I)
Platero is a small, soft, silver donkey from a Spanish book made up of short poetic chapters. The writer walks with Platero through his little village in Andalusia and chats to him about everything they see, from children playing to the changing seasons. Platero is so gentle and fluffy that the writer says he seems to be made of cotton, with no bones inside at all.
Brighty of the Grand Canyon
Brighty was a real wild burro who roamed the Grand Canyon in the early 1900s, and he later became the star of a much-loved children's novel. There's a bronze statue of Brighty at the Grand Canyon's North Rim today. Visitors rub his nose for good luck, so his nose is the shiniest part of him.
Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey
Nestor is the star of an old animated Christmas special. The other animals tease him for his enormously long ears, but those ears turn out to be exactly what's needed when Nestor is chosen to carry Mary all the way to Bethlehem.
Dominick the Donkey
Dominick is the cheerful Italian donkey from a Christmas song who helps Santa deliver presents in Italy, because the reindeer can't manage the steep Italian hills. He's become a holiday favourite, especially in Ireland, where the song is played on the radio every December...
The Donkey Stars
The Greeks told how the god Dionysus rode a donkey into battle against the Giants. The donkeys brayed so loudly that the Giants ran off in fright, and as a reward they were placed in the stars of Cancer, where two stars still sit on either side of a little cluster the ancients called the Manger...
A Donkey in the Shire
This donkey would fit right in among the round green doors and flower gardens of a hobbit village. Hobbits mostly got around on ponies, like Sam's faithful pony Bill, but a donkey hauling baskets of garden vegetables to market seems just as much at home in the Shire...
Lord of the Rings coloring pages
