Roll and Color Dice Games

What a roll and color game is

A roll and color dice game is one of the simplest early-years activities there is: a child rolls a die, reads what came up, and colors the matching part of a picture. The picture might be a row of six apples numbered 1 to 6, a robot whose parts are each labeled with a number, or a grid of circles. Roll a 4, color the 4. Keep rolling until the page is full.

It looks like coloring, and it is, but every roll is also a small bit of number recognition, counting, or color naming. That is why the format is everywhere in preschool and kindergarten classrooms, and why most searches for it lead to a printable worksheet.

Use the online die instead of a physical one

The worksheet is the easy part. The die is what goes missing, gets swallowed by the sofa, or has to be shared between twelve children. The online color dice roller at the top of this page replaces it, and it does one thing a wooden die cannot: it shows a color and a number on the same face. A roll reads "blue 5", not just "5".

That single detail opens up games a plain die cannot run, because the color can carry a second instruction. Tap the die to roll. Use the Faces toggle to switch between colors only, numbers, or pips, and Customize colors when your crayons do not match the default set. Everything below assumes one die unless it says otherwise.

6 roll and color dice games

1. Roll a number, color that number

The classic. Number the sections of a picture from 1 to 6. Roll, find that number, color it in. If a number is already colored, roll again. Children who are past color words and only need number practice can use plain online dice with no color at all.

2. Roll a color, color one thing that color

For children who are not reading digits yet. Ignore the number (or set Faces to Colors only). Roll, say the color out loud, then color one shape on the page in that color. Six colors means six crayons, and the die's color name is printed under it, so the child can match the word too.

3. Roll a color and a number, color that many

This is the game a physical die cannot do. Roll once and read both halves: "green 3" means color three shapes green. It combines counting with color naming in a single roll, and there is no second die to lose track of. Works on any page with lots of small, identical shapes: balloons, fish, dots.

4. Add two dice, color the sum

Set the count to two and number the picture from 2 to 12. Roll, add the two faces, color the sum. If you want the addition to be the whole point, switch to two plain dice on the online dice page; if you want a color instruction on top of the sum, keep the colored faces and use the color of the higher die.

5. Two-player race

Each player has the same sheet and a different crayon. Take turns rolling one die and coloring the matching section on your own sheet. The first player to fill every section wins. Because the die is on a shared screen, there is no argument about whose turn it is or what the roll was.

6. Whole-class cooperative picture

Project the roller. Give every child the same large picture divided into numbered sections, or one big shared mural on the wall. Each roll tells the whole room what to color next. It runs itself for ten minutes and produces something you can pin up, and it is the seat-work cousin of the classroom color dice games teachers use for transitions.

Make your own sheet in a minute

You do not need a printable. Any coloring page works if you write a small number from 1 to 6 in each section. If you have blank paper, draw six rows and label them 1 to 6, then put a few simple shapes in each row: circles, squares, stars. For the color-only games, draw a dot of each die color at the start of the row instead of a number.

• Keep sections big enough for a chunky crayon.
• Match the crayons you hand out to the six colors on the die, or use Customize colors to match the crayons you already have.
• For a shorter game, number the sections 1 to 4 and set the roller to four colors.

Tips for teachers and parents

• Start with fewer colors for the youngest players: the 3-color dice and 4-color dice pages are the same roller with a smaller palette.
• Have the child say the roll out loud before coloring. "Red four" is the whole lesson.
• Every die shows its color name as well as the color, which keeps the game fair for children who are color-blind.
• Once the page has loaded, the roller keeps working without a connection, so it holds up at a kitchen table or in a classroom with patchy Wi-Fi.