Spring is in the air! Unfortunately, we are spending more time indoors than I would like due to COVID-19. Since my littles are trapped at home, I wanted to do a fun craftivity that could bring smiles to others as well! In thinking about things that make most people smile, I came to the sun and rainbows. After polling my children, we settled on rainbows!
I could have simply drawn a rainbow and asked my kiddos to color it in (which still would have been a fabulous activity!). Instead, I wanted to make it a bit more interactive and exciting for them. Here is what we did:
*This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn on qualifying orders at no additional cost to you.
Materials
- Large white paper roll
- Permanent markers
- Colored construction paper
- Scissors
- Glue sticks
How To
This craftivity is super simple to set up!
1. Draw a rainbow with clouds on your large white paper roll. If you are working on color matching, you can draw a few colored dots in each rainbow section so your kiddos can figure out where each color goes.
2. Grab construction paper in the colors of a rainbow. (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and white)
3. Cut your papers into small squares and place each color in a different bowl/container
OR
3. Pull out the kid scissors and let your kiddos (with adult supervision) cut each sheet into squares. The pieces don’t have to be perfect, so however they do it will be great!
4. Set out a few glue sticks and invite your littles to build a rainbow!
That’s it!
Related: Check out this engaging and simple sensory bin for even more color practice!
Colors, Colors, Colors
I feel like color activities are easily overlooked because we assume that our kids will just figure them out! It seems necessary to teach the ABC’s and 123’s, but colors are that simple concept that children should learn through everyday exposure, right?
Although some kiddos pick up colors with no intentional teaching necessary, it is a tricky concept for others to grasp. My eyes were opened to that fact during my first year of teaching Kindergarten. Part of our beginning of the year assessment was a color recognition assessment. At first, I thought it was a waste of time to test color recognition because, well, what 5 year old doesn’t already know their colors?! – It’s important to note that I had just graduated from college, gotten married, and had no children of my own yet. – Boy was I wrong! I couldn’t believe how many incoming Kinders didn’t know all of their colors!
Most of the kiddos who missed some simply mixed up brown, gray and black. But I still couldn’t believe the results! It was at that moment that I realized that color recognition was an extremely important skill to teach in early childhood.
From Colors To Fine Motor Skills
Fast forward almost a decade and I have two toddlers and a baby of my own. My middle child is currently in that color learning phase and I try to do at least one intentional activity a week related to colors. Sometimes we focus on just one color, other times we explore multiple. I like to mix it up to keep the littles on their toes!
The focus of this Rainbow Craftivity, in a color sense, was to touch on almost every color. I looked at it as more of a review. We had spent a couple weeks discussing each rainbow color individually and now I wanted to see if Mr. 2 could draw upon what he had learned and put the correct name with each color.
While Mr. 2 was focusing on recognizing and naming each color, I was focused on fine motor skills with his older brother. It may seem like a simple task, but picking up an individual square and then gluing it in the correct section can be challenging for those little fingers! It takes a lot of focus and control to complete this rainbow. Not to mention the scissor skills involved if you have your kiddos cut the squares out!
Let me tell you, the boys really got into this activity. I loved watching my 4 year old guide his little brother with the colors. It was just the sweetest! He would ask him to find a certain color and then tell him where to glue it. Team work for sure! Another bonus of this activity? It was fairly independent! My kiddos sat there sorting, gluing and discussing the colors while I took care of the baby. I always had an eye on them though. At the end of the day, they are still only toddlers! And toddlers can get into trouble fairly quickly if left unsupervised.
Add a Book!
One of the things that I love to do with many of our activities, is to add a book to the learning. Adding a book brings the activity to a new level and allows your kiddos to have a deeper understanding of what you are trying to teach. For this activity, I have teamed up with the amazing Jaimie Hutchison who is a consultant with Usborne Books & More! She is a former 7th grade language arts teacher, who has a secondary education degree with an emphasis in English and reading. And lucky for me, she is also my amazing big sister! Jaimie has always had a true love for reading and will be giving us some regular book recommendations to pair with activities. Join her VIP Facebook Page for free activities, literacy tips, and all of the latest sales and deals! We are so excited for all of the collaborations to come!
There are so many Usborne books that could be used with this activity! The book that we chose to pair it with is The Big Book of Colors by Usborne. This is truly one of my kid’s favorite books! It is one of those books that they ask to read every. single. night. Luckily, I enjoy it too!
Each page focuses on a different color and displays 20+ different things that can be that specific color. There are also awesome interactive pages at both the front and back of the book. Honestly, I feel that this book has been one of the greatest learning tools for my middle child to learn his colors. He LOVES it! And each time we flip the page, he tells me whose favorite color we are viewing. i.e. This is Mommy’s favorite color! (yellow)
To add this book to your Rainbow Craftivity, begin by telling your littles that they will be making a rainbow. Ask them to look for rainbow colors in the book. Read the book and make sure to emphasize all of the rainbow colors while reading. When you are done, begin building that rainbow! While your kiddos are creating, pop by with the book every now and then and flip to the color they are working on. Talk about what things are typically that color and what color comes next. This book is truly one of our favorites!
Click Here to see some awesome Usborne Books to pair with my activities!
Spreading The Joy
When our rainbow was complete, it was time to add a message and hang it. I went back and forth on what to write, but ultimately landed on Smile. I feel like people can always use that reminder, especially in the ‘Stay ay Home’ world that we currently live in.
The boys wanted to hang their rainbow in the window for everyone to see! And, although it’s something small, I feel that it has already brought many smiles to our neighborhood.
So, not only will this Rainbow have your kids flexing their fine motor skills and working with colors, it will brighten up your house and your street and hopefully make someone’s day.
What are you waiting for?! Get to rainbow creating!
Looking for more engaging indoor activities? Check these out!
