Welcome September with a colorful celebration of changing seasons, new school adventures, and one very wise feathered friend! Our September coloring page brings together some of the things that make this month feel so special: an owl, autumn leaves, books, pencils, and plenty of back-to-school details waiting for your favorite colors.
September can feel like two seasons wrapped into one. Summer hasn’t completely disappeared when the month begins, but cooler days, changing leaves, earlier sunsets, and the return to school all signal that fall is on its way.
Grab your crayons, colored pencils, or markers and use this printable September coloring page to welcome a brand-new month.
🦉 Meet the September Owl
At the center of this coloring page is a wonderful owl surrounded by school supplies and autumn details.
Owls are often used as symbols of wisdom and learning, which makes one a perfect companion for a back-to-school September picture. The real birds are fascinating too. Many owl species have large eyes that are well adapted for seeing in low-light conditions, while sensitive hearing helps them locate prey.
When coloring your owl, you can choose natural woodland shades such as brown, cream, gray, tan, and rust.
Try combining several shades instead of using one flat color. A brown owl might include cream around its face, darker chocolate markings across its wings, and touches of gold around its feathers.
Or forget realism completely and create a purple, turquoise, pink, or rainbow September owl.
For more feathered inspiration, explore our Bird Coloring Pages.
🍂 Color the First Signs of Fall
Autumn leaves surrounding the owl give this September picture plenty of room for warm seasonal colors.
Try classic fall shades such as:
- Golden yellow
- Pumpkin orange
- Rust
- Scarlet red
- Burgundy
- Copper
- Chestnut brown
- Deep green
You don’t have to make every leaf the same color. In fact, using several shades can make the page look much more interesting.
One leaf might still be green while another has turned yellow. A third could combine orange and red, while another is already deep brown.
That mix fits September especially well because the month often feels like a transition between seasons.
🍁 Why Do Leaves Change Color?
Those colorful leaves can also turn the page into a simple nature lesson.
Leaves contain a green pigment called chlorophyll, which plays an important role in photosynthesis. As days shorten and seasonal conditions change, trees begin producing less chlorophyll.
As the green pigment breaks down, other pigments in the leaves become easier to see, revealing yellows, oranges, reds, and other autumn shades.
Different trees, weather conditions, and locations can produce very different fall displays, which is one reason autumn landscapes contain such an enormous range of color.
Kids can look at real leaves outdoors and then see how many of those shades they can recreate on the coloring page.
✏️ Back-to-School Coloring Fun
September and back-to-school season naturally belong together, and this page includes plenty of school-themed details.
Books and pencils surround the owl, creating an easy opportunity to celebrate the beginning of a new school year.
Make the school supplies as colorful as you like.
Create:
- Red pencils
- Rainbow pencils
- Bright notebooks
- Patterned book covers
- Colorful erasers
- Decorated folders
Kids could even give each book a pretend title.
Maybe the owl is reading a book about dinosaurs, planets, animals, fairy tales, or something else the child would like to learn this year.
For more school-themed printables, visit our Coloring Pages for Back to School.
📚 Design Your Own Book Covers
The books in the September coloring page offer a fun little creative challenge.
Instead of simply coloring them, pretend they are real books and design their covers.
One could be called The Owl’s Great Adventure.
Another might be Amazing Animals of the Forest.
A third could become My First Day of School.
Add tiny stars, animals, leaves, letters, numbers, or other decorations to each book cover.
Older children can even write a one-sentence description of what they think each imaginary book would be about.
🌈 Make the School Supplies Rainbow-Colored
Back-to-school supplies don’t have to be realistic.
Turn the pencils into a full rainbow by coloring each one a different shade.
Try:
Red
Orange
Yellow
Green
Blue
Purple
Then repeat those colors elsewhere in the picture.
Perhaps one book has a red cover, another is orange, and another is blue. Coordinating the colors throughout the page can make the finished design feel surprisingly polished.
Younger children can also use the pencils for simple color-recognition practice.
Ask:
“Can you find the red pencil?”
“Which pencil should be blue?”
“What color comes after yellow in the rainbow?”
A coloring page can become a simple learning activity without making it feel like homework.
🍎 Create a September Classroom Scene
The picture already includes several school supplies, but kids can add even more.
Draw a classroom background with:
- A chalkboard
- A desk
- An alphabet chart
- A globe
- An apple
- A backpack
- A ruler
- Crayons
- Scissors
- A calendar
Write September across the classroom calendar and decorate the squares with tiny pictures of leaves, apples, books, or pencils.
This can turn a single coloring page into a much larger back-to-school art project.
🏫 Use It for the First Weeks of School
This September printable can be especially handy during the first few weeks of the school year.
Teachers might use it for:
- Morning work
- Early finishers
- Art centers
- Indoor recess
- Classroom decorations
- September bulletin boards
- Take-home activities
- Quiet time
Students can all color the same picture differently and then display the finished pages together.
A bulletin board filled with dozens of unique September owls would make a cheerful introduction to the new school year.
✏️ Add a September Writing Prompt
The owl, books, and school supplies make this page easy to pair with a short writing activity.
Try prompts such as:
Something I want to learn this year is…
My favorite thing about September is…
This school year I hope to…
If I could ask this owl one question, I would ask…
My favorite book is…
The best thing about fall is…
Younger children can tell their answer aloud while an adult or teacher writes it down.
Older kids can write several sentences and display their writing beside the finished picture.
🦉 Imagine the Owl Goes to School
Turn the September owl into the main character of a story.
Maybe the owl has never been to school before.
What happens on its first day?
Does it bring a backpack?
What subjects does an owl study?
Perhaps there is a class about flying, a lesson on forest animals, or a library filled with books about the nighttime world.
Children can give the owl a name and write a short story about its September adventure.
The finished coloring page can serve as the book’s cover.
🌳 Turn Coloring Time Into an Owl Lesson
September is a great time to begin exploring animals that live in forests and woodlands.
Owls have several interesting adaptations. Many species have large eyes suited to gathering available light, while specialized feathers help some owls fly remarkably quietly.
Many owls also have excellent hearing. In some species, the ear openings are positioned asymmetrically, helping the bird pinpoint where a sound is coming from.
After coloring, kids could look at photographs of several owl species and compare their colors and markings.
A Great Horned Owl, Snowy Owl, Barn Owl, and Great Gray Owl all look very different.
Then print another copy of the September page and color the owl using a real species as inspiration.
🌙 Create a Nighttime Owl Picture
Although the September design has a cheerful school theme, you can completely transform it by adding a nighttime background.
Color the sky deep navy, purple, or black.
Add:
- A crescent moon
- Stars
- Clouds
- Silhouettes of trees
- Fireflies
- A distant school building
Use pale yellow around the moon and stars to create a glowing effect.
The warm orange and red fall leaves will stand out beautifully against the darker background.
☀️ Or Make a Sunny September Afternoon
If nighttime isn’t your style, create a bright early-fall afternoon instead.
Use pale blue for the sky and add fluffy clouds.
Draw a few leaves blowing through the air and perhaps a school building or playground in the distance.
Keep some of the surrounding foliage green while adding touches of yellow and orange.
That combination can capture the feeling of September, when summer greenery and the first autumn colors can sometimes appear side by side.
📅 September and the Changing Seasons
September is an interesting month because it contains the astronomical transition between summer and fall in the Northern Hemisphere.
The September equinox typically occurs on September 22 or 23. At that point in Earth’s yearly journey around the Sun, the Sun crosses the celestial equator.
After the September equinox, autumn continues in the Northern Hemisphere while spring unfolds in the Southern Hemisphere.
That means September coloring looks different depending on where you live.
Kids in the Northern Hemisphere might associate September with falling leaves and cooler weather, while children in the Southern Hemisphere are welcoming spring.
🌎 Make a September Around-the-World Activity
That seasonal difference can become an interesting geography activity for older children.
Ask:
“What season is September where we live?”
“What season is it on the other side of the world?”
“What might a September coloring page look like in Australia?”
Instead of autumn leaves, a Southern Hemisphere September page might include spring flowers, baby animals, or fresh green growth.
Children can draw two pictures side by side:
September in the Northern Hemisphere
and
September in the Southern Hemisphere
It’s an easy introduction to the idea that seasons aren’t the same everywhere at the same time.
🍁 Go on a September Leaf Hunt
The autumn leaves in the coloring page can also inspire an outdoor activity.
Take a short walk through the yard, neighborhood, park, or school grounds and look for leaves.
Notice their:
- Shape
- Size
- Color
- Veins
- Edges
- Texture
How many are still green?
Can you find a yellow leaf?
An orange one?
A red one?
A brown one?
Children can bring a few fallen leaves back for closer observation, provided collecting is allowed where you are walking.
🖍️ Make Leaf Rubbings
Fallen leaves can become a simple art project.
Place a leaf beneath a thin sheet of paper with the raised veins facing upward.
Then gently rub the side of a crayon across the paper.
The leaf’s shape and veins should begin to appear.
Experiment with several colors and different leaf shapes.
You could create an entire page of red, orange, yellow, and gold leaf rubbings to display beside the September owl.
For more autumn art inspiration, explore our 54 Coloring Sheets for Autumn.
🎨 Try a Classic September Color Palette
If you want the picture to feel unmistakably autumnal, choose a limited group of warm colors.
Try:
- Burnt orange
- Golden yellow
- Burgundy
- Rust
- Olive green
- Chocolate brown
- Cream
Use brown and cream for the owl, warm shades for the leaves, and muted reds, greens, and golds for the school supplies.
Keeping the colors related can give the entire page a cozy early-fall feeling.
🌈 Try a Bright Back-to-School Palette
For a more playful approach, ignore traditional fall colors.
Try:
- Turquoise
- Bright pink
- Sunshine yellow
- Lime green
- Purple
- Red
- Sky blue
Create a rainbow owl, colorful books, and pencils in every possible shade.
This approach works particularly well for younger children who simply want to choose their favorite colors.
There is no reason a September owl can’t have purple wings and turquoise feathers.
🍂 Explore More Fall Coloring Pages
September is only the beginning of all the wonderful autumn coloring possibilities.
Our Fall Coloring Pages offer more seasonal scenes inspired by changing leaves and the colors of autumn.
For an even bigger collection, explore 54 Coloring Sheets for Autumn, with pumpkins, woodland animals, cozy scenes, leaves, sweaters, apples, acorns, and other fall favorites.
You can also browse Coloring Pictures for Fall for owls, squirrels, apples, school scenes, harvest produce, and more seasonal inspiration.
🗓️ Follow the Year Month by Month
Monthly coloring pages can be a fun way for children to notice how the year changes.
You can begin with our August Coloring Page, where late-summer details hint that autumn isn’t far away, and then move into September as school begins and fall approaches.
Keep the finished pages together in a binder and add a new one each month.
By the end of the year, children will have their own colorful calendar of the seasons.
Our Seasonal Coloring Pages hub makes it easy to follow spring, summer, fall, and winter throughout the year.
✂️ Things to Make With Your September Coloring Page
Once the owl is finished, don’t immediately put the picture away.
Turn it into:
- A classroom decoration
- A September calendar cover
- A notebook cover
- A bookmark
- A fall bulletin-board display
- A homeschool binder cover
- A back-to-school poster
- A seasonal scrapbook page
- A reading-log cover
Children could also cut out the owl and glue it onto construction paper surrounded by handmade leaves.
Add the child’s name and school year and save it as a first-day-of-school keepsake.
📚 Make a September Reading Challenge
Since the coloring page includes books and a wise owl, it makes a great cover for a September reading log.
Write My September Reading Challenge across the top.
Then make a list of books read throughout the month.
Younger children can add a sticker for every book they finish with an adult.
Older kids can write the title, author, and a simple rating.
At the end of September, the colored owl becomes the cover of a record showing everything they read during the month.
🖍️ Best Supplies for This September Coloring Page
Crayons are excellent for younger children and larger areas.
Colored pencils make it easier to shade the owl’s feathers, create several colors within the leaves, and work around smaller school-supply details.
Markers can produce bold autumn colors and bright back-to-school supplies. If you use markers, slightly heavier paper may help prevent ink from showing through.
Kids can also add gel pens, metallic accents, stickers, or other craft supplies after coloring.
A gold gel pen can look especially pretty on autumn leaves.
🖨️ How to Use Your September Coloring Page
Print the September coloring page and gather your favorite art supplies.
Then decide what kind of September you want to create.
Maybe your owl lives in a forest filled with red, orange, and golden leaves.
Perhaps it is a rainbow owl starting its first day at a brightly colored school.
Or maybe the entire picture takes place beneath a starry September sky.
Use realistic colors, imaginative colors, or a mixture of both.
The page provides the outlines. Everything else is up to you.
🦉 Welcome September With Creativity
September is a month of new beginnings and changing seasons. School starts again for many children, summer slowly gives way to autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, leaves begin their seasonal transformation, and a whole new stretch of the year lies ahead.
Our free printable September coloring page brings those ideas together with a wise owl, fall leaves, books, pencils, and plenty of opportunities for creative color.
Print your page, choose your favorite autumn or back-to-school palette, and welcome September one crayon stroke at a time.
🔗 Related Articles
- Coloring Pages for Back to School
- Fall Coloring Pages
- 54 Coloring Sheets for Autumn
- Coloring Pictures for Fall
- Bird Coloring Pages
- Seasonal Coloring Pages
- August Coloring Page
- Educational Coloring Pages & Activities
📚 Sources
- National Park Service — Why Do Leaves Change Colors in the Fall?
- NOAA — Why Do Leaves Change Color?
- Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History — Animal Adaptations: Owls
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology — Great Horned Owl
- NASA Science — Embracing the Equinox
