Did you know you are made up of millions and trillions of cells? This animal cell coloring worksheet is a great quick-and-easy printable to help introduce your student to the world of cells.
Missed our plant cell coloring worksheet? You can grab it here: Plant Cell Coloring Worksheet.
Cell Worksheet Supplies
- Printer (I love my printer, I use this one!)
- Paper
- Pencil crayons
Common cell structures
As stated in the plant cell coloring worksheet intro, all cells have certain “organelles” in common. An organelle is simply what we call those cell parts. Organelles are to cells what your organs are to your body.
Learn more about human body systems with our Human Body Worksheets. Common to all cells are vacuole, Golgi apparatus, and endoplasmic reticulum, along with cell walls/cell membranes, mitochondria and nuclei.
Vacuole
Your body has openings to let in fuel and let out wastes. Your cells do too. The vacuole are what we call those openings in the cell wall or cell membrane. Vacuole operate as part gate, part storage for the cell. On the animal cell coloring worksheet, color the vacuole yellow.
Golgi Apparatus
Golgi apparatus, also known as Golgi bodies or Golgi complex, are the “messengers” of the cell. They’re often likened to a kind of post office for the cell. They take simpler molecules in the cell and package them up into more complex and more useful molecules.
They also are responsible for the digestion proteins called lysosomes. Golgi (pronounced “gol-ji” by the way) apparatus work closely with the endoplasmic reticulum, and should be colored grey on your animal cell coloring worksheet.
Endoplasmic Reticulum
While Golgi apparatus are the “post office” of cells, endoplasmic reticulum are the highways. These are a series of tube-like structures that help transport different chemicals to different parts of the cell, much like your blood transports food and oxygen to different parts of your brain, or a truck and highway system transports the food from the farm to the city.
They are actually found throughout your cell, but on the animal cell coloring worksheet, you’ll notice we only showed them around the nucleus.
Animal Cell Organelles
Just like plant cells, there are organelles specific to animal cells. These would be the lysosomes and centrosomes.
Lysosomes
Lysosomes are the garbage disposals of animal cells. They collect and deal with the waste products of the cell, such as excess water, salt or other minerals.
Centrosomes
Centrosomes are the parts that are responsible for cell division and the creation of parts that allow cells to move.
Recommended Cell Books for Kids
Learn all about the organelles of cells with these great books. You can color each part in the animal cell coloring worksheet, after you’ve read that section in your book, and complete an entire unit of science, in easy time.
The Animal Cell and Division Biology for Kids | Children’s Biology Books
Cells For Kids (Science Book For Children)Looking Inside Cells: Life Science (Science Readers)Human Body! (Knowledge Encyclopedias)
Recommended Animal Cell Kits
Want more cellular fun? Check out these marvelous animal cell anatomy kits. If you get one, and your kids setup, we’d love to see it. Just tag us on Instagram.
Famemaster 4D-Science Animal Cell Anatomy ModelLearning Resources LER6039 Giant Magnetic Animal CellFamemaster 4D-Science Plant Cell Anatomy ModelBeautifully detailed Animal Cell Anatomy Model – 24 detachable parts! (Age 8+)
Download the cell worksheets here:
See the other activities in my 10 days of Biology Worksheets for Elementary Students series.
More Cell Worksheets
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