Coat of Arms Templates: 40 Free Printable Shields

Which template to print

For younger children, print one big blank heater shield per page. Thick lines survive crayon, and a shield that fills the page leaves room to draw. Give them a short list of choices instead of free rein: one animal, two colors, one object. The coat of arms symbols guide has a plain list to read out.

For older students, the quartered shield is the classic: four sections, four ideas, one page. In real heraldry quartering shows arms combined through marriage, not four hobbies, which explains why old arms sometimes have sixteen compartments. Per pale, per fess and per chevron look less like a worksheet, and the heraldic divisions guide explains each one.

The worksheets ask for reasons as well as drawings. For the color question, heraldry colors lists the traditional meanings, and the rule of tincture is worth teaching: metal on color reads from a distance, color on color does not. For the motto line, Latin mottos has phrases with translations.

Printing tips

• Print at 100 percent, not fit to page, so the shield keeps its size and margins.
• The sheets are US Letter (8.5 by 11 inches). On A4 they print slightly smaller, which is fine for a worksheet.
• Use copy paper for pencil and colored pencil, and cardstock for markers, paint or anything you will cut out.
• Print one test copy before running thirty, and laminate a couple with dry erase markers if you repeat the lesson.
• PNG downloads are 2550 by 3300 pixels, which is 300 dots per inch at Letter size. SVG scales to any size.

From paper to a finished design

Students sketch freely on paper, then rebuild the design they settled on so it can be printed properly or put on a certificate. The redraw step is where the heraldry sinks in, because colors and charges have to be named rather than scribbled. "Color it in the maker" on any template opens the Coat of Arms Creator with that shield and division ready, and how to make a coat of arms walks through the rest.