Color by Coding Earth Day Coloring Page

Looking for a fun and easy activity for Earth Day this year? Kids will love the challenge of this Earth Day Color by Coding Coloring Page on April 22nd or any day of the year. It uses ASCII binary and decimal codes as the key to the colors. Read on to get the free printable and to learn more about how we’re exploring STEAM this year.

What is Coding?

There’s a lot of talk today about coding being the language of the future. But what exactly is it and why is it important? Coding makes it possible for us to tell computers how to do stuff, like run our phones, play video games, and make a website. Any app you use on your phone or computer is possible because of code.

Computers speak the languages of zeroes and ones, essentially on and off signals to computer parts called transistors. These zeroes and ones have been translated into codes called the ASCII Binary code where every letter, number, and character has an 8-digit combination of zeroes and ones. ASCII is the most common format for text files for computers and the internet. It stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange and uses numbers to represent letters and special characters. The binary version uses only zeros and ones in an 8-bit (or digit) pattern.

But it would take FOREVER to do anything if we had to do anything in just zeroes and ones, so computers use other languages now, that are all based upon binary. But for today’s activity, we’re going to design with where it all started, binary.

Color by Coding Earth Day Coloring Page Supplies Needed

You don’t need much for this learning activity. And that makes it a perfect budget time filler in class or at home.

• Earth Day Color by Coding printable (See below for printable instructions.)
• Paper
• Printer
• Art supplies like markers, crayons, or colored pencils
• Ruler (optional, but a ruler can help kids grab the right code on the ASCII code list)

 

How to Color by Code

If the kids have ever done a color by number page, they’re halfway there to figuring this out. Except they have to decipher which color goes with each number. And the way they will do it is with a coding language called ASCII. Depending upon their ability levels, kids will find the codes in either the Binary or Decimal columns on the ASCII sheet and figure out which letter corresponds to the code. Then enter that letter on the color code sheet until they’ve spelled out the colors. Then they can color away!

I’ve included everything you need to have an independent STEM learning session in class or at home. The printable includes:

• Earth Day Coloring Page
• Answer key
• ASCII binary and decimal decipher the color code page
• ASCII code sheet
• Teacher guide
• What’s the STEAM Behind It? background learning page

More Earth Day Activities for Kids

Amazing and Educational Earth Day Activities for Kids: Check out this fun list for more ideas to celebrate the day.

Celebrate Earth Day all year round... Have fun as we reduce, reuse, renew, and recycle with the STEAM Explorers Recycle Ebook Unit Study!

Here are some of the unique things the kids can do with the Recycle Ebook Unit Study by STEAM Explorers:

• Learn about the plight of plastic and make a Bioplastic Suncatcher.
• Discover how our trash breaks down with a Detecting Decomposition Experiment.
• Reduce, reuse, renew, and recycle with a Zero Waste Challenge or a T-Shirt Tote Bag.
• Save one of the 1 billion toothbrushes thrown out every year by making a Litter Bug Bot.
• Craft some Math-Filled Paper Bag Roses that no one will believe came from trash. (Psstt... they're perfect for Mother's Day gifts!)
• Plus they can snack on Garbage Cookies, do some recycling-themed offline coding, and more!

Inside every STEAM Explorers ebook are:

• Projects: Hands-on science, technology, engineering, art, and math projects
• Printables: Fun printables for independent learning and fun
• Recipes: Delicious recipes that have a learning spin
• Learning: Interesting reading that helps kids learn about our planet on every page
• Activity Calendar: A helpful calendar to make adding STEAM to your day simple and fun.
• Supplies List: A handy supplies list for the month that makes prep easy.
• BONUS! A coupon to save 25% on a monthly STEAM Explorers subscription. That's where you'll find a kid-safe online portal filled with helpful activity videos, teacher lesson plans, and more.

More Coding Activities for Kids

Or maybe you’re more here for the coding than the coloring! Then these activities are totally for you.

Hour of Code: Be sure to check out this amazing coding resource from Code.org. They’re great for Computer Science week AND all year round.

If-Then Coding Game for Kids: Add a dose of programming to their play with this fun take on a classic game.

Coding for Kids – 25+ Ways to Learn the Language of the Future: This mega list of on-screen and screen-free ways to explore coding has something for everyone.