Digital and Printable Coloring Brain Breaks - Anxiety and Stress Relief for Students and Adults

Our guidance class houses will place tables with coloring sheets, crayons, and pencils every year around finals time and the students love it. I've also shared some creative digital resources for drawing and coloring in the past including, Google Arts and Culture Coloring Books, Google Autodraw, Google Drawings, and Digital Whiteboards. 

Most of my elementary friends have always known about the advantages of coloring, but I think we sometimes lose track of this in high school and as adults. Today I wanted to share a few resources and updates connected to the benefits of taking a brain break and coloring something simply for the joy of coloring.

Why Color?

I believe that there are many advantages to Brain Breaks for students and adults. Coloring can be a great break to reduce stress and reset the brain. People much smarter than me have studied and shared some great resources connected to the benefits of coloring. Here are a few favorite resources that might be worth exploring.

• 10 Therapeutic Benefits of Using Adult Coloring Books
• Coloring Books for Adults: 9 Science-Backed Reasons to Pick Up Your Crayons
• 10 Benefits of Adult Coloring Books on Stress & Anxiety

Digital Coloring Book Resources 

Most of the resources are focused on the benefits of using physical tools to color, I believe there are also benefits to exploring digital coloring resources. 

• My favorite digital coloring resource is the Google Arts and Culture Art Coloring Book

Google Arts and Culture has expanded the collection to include: Christmas, Ramadan and Eid, Diwali, Kwanzaa, Hunukkah, NASA, and Pandas. 

• Online-Coloring.com is another free resources with 100's of coloring book templates and an easy to use coloring interface. The blank templates can also be printed. There are occasional pop up adds that appear when exploring the templates. 
• Color by Numbers also has a nice color by number digital interface to engage learners of all ages. 

There are also many great coloring Apps if you are using tablets that are available with just a quick search in your App Store. 

Adult Coloring Books are a Thing

The publishing world has not missed out on the power of coloring for adults. Here are a few adult coloring books that might be worth exploring. 

• Adult Coloring Book: Stress Relieving Animal Designs
• Adult Coloring Book Stress Relieving Designs
• Amazing Patterns: Adult Coloring Book, Stress Relieving Mandala Style Patterns
• Worlds of Wonder: A Coloring Book for the Curious Paperback
• Mindfulness Coloring Book For Adults: Zen Coloring Book For Mindful People

You can even go all in and get a full set of colored pencils or crayons.

• 120 Colored Pencils Set by Zenacolor
• U.S. Art Supply Super Crayons Set of 36 Colors
• Crayola Ultimate Crayon Collection Coloring Set

Printable Coloring Book Resources

• Google Arts and Culture also offers a collection of printable coloring templates and mazes with their Activity Book. 
• Crayola also offers a nice collection of Free Coloring Pages. 
• Paint the World - Super Coloring is offers another great collection of printable coloring templates. 

There are also many great free and paid coloring pages that are just a Google Search away. 

This post was inspired by a recent TCEA post. You can find additional resources in this post: Coloring Book Resources to Benefit Children and Adults