You have come to the right place if you are looking for fun, engaging and exciting Rainbow themed activities to do with toddlers, preschoolers and kindergartners. Our activities are used by teachers, moms, dads, child care providers and more!

All our activities are available at no cost and are free to print and share. Select below to get started.

RAINBOW Arts and Crafts

Class Rainbow
Paint the children’s hands the colors of the rainbow and have them paint a class rainbow by pressing their hands on roll paper.

Rainbow Fun
Use different size circles of colored paper to represent each color of the rainbow and glue together from smallest to largest (colors of rainbow following pattern).

Draw an outline of a rainbow with pencil for each child. Instruct them where the colors go. Provide tissue paper squares in all the colors for children to glue on to appropriate space.

Rainbow Necklaces
Dye small macaroni’s the colors of a rainbow. Have children make a rainbow gluing those onto paper. Or string them on string to make rainbow necklaces.

Rainbow Creations
Use water colors to paint on coffee filters to make rainbow creations.

Pot O’Gold
And of course make a pot of gold. Make black pots out of construction paper. Cut small circles out of yellow paper and glue around the rim of pot!!

Starburst Paintings
Spread corn syrup on a piece of cardboard or a paper plate and let the children drip food coloring onto it. Very sticky!

Milk Explosions
Pour a small amount of milk into a shallow container and drop food coloring around the edges. Drop one drop of dish soap in the middle and see what happens!

Extension: Pour a thin layer of white glue on a small paper plate and repeat the experiment for each child. Let it dry and you have a wonderful sun catcher.

Warming Tray Pictures
Materials:
Griddle
Newspaper Paper or wax paper
What to Do:
Place a warming tray on low setting Cover it with several sheets of newspaper to protect the children from the hot edges of the tray. Place a sheet of art paper on top of the newspaper and let the children take turns coloring with wax crayons.

The children will discover a change in the “feel” of the way the crayon moves and a change in the “looks” of the drawing.

Tissue Paper Rainbow
Materials:
Various colors of tissue paper, Glue, Pencil
What to Do:
Draw a rainbow on the construction paper. Tear the tissue paper into lots of small pieces. Spread a little glue on the band of you rainbow. Press one color of tissue pieces onto the glue.

Then cover the other bands of your rainbow with glue and tissue paper pieces. Let your tissue paper rainbow dry.

White on Black Bold
Materials:
Soap Flakes
Finger paint
Heavy Sheet of Black paper
Plastic squeeze bottles
What to Do:
Put soap flake paint in squeeze bottle. Squeeze out interesting white lines of different shapes and thickness on black paper.

Arrange them in a bold pattern.

Melted Crayon Laminations
Materials:
Old Cheese Grater
Wax paper
Newspaper
Old Iron
Yarn-for hanging
What to Do:
Grate crayon onto wax paper. Cover with more waxpaper-add yarn for hanging. Cover all this with newsprint.

Quickly touch warm iron to the covered wax paper and shavings-Do this gently!!

Rainbow Plates
Materials:
2 Paper Plates
Colored Cellophane
Glue

What to Do:
Cut out a large circle in the middle of 2 paper plates. Glue colored cellophane to cover the hole on one plate, and then glue the two plates together.

Children look through and see the world as different colors.

Coffee Filter Melt
Materials:
Lrg. Coffee Filters
Crayon stubs
Cheese Grater
Foil
Cookie Sheet

What to Do:
Cover the cookie sheet with foil. Open and press two lrg. Coffee filters on the cookie sheet. Begin dropping little stubs of old crayons on the coffee filters. Grate some larger crayons and drop shavings on coffee filters.

Place cookie sheet in warm oven (200 F) Leave oven open to watch crayon begin melting. This usually only takes a couple minutes. Remove when melted let cool then hold up to the light to enjoy the colors.

 

RAINBOW Games and Activities

Color Collages
Have the children make collages out of materials that are all one color, or make rainbows out of different color materials.

Oil and Ice
Make many colored ice cubes. Fill a tall clear container with oil. Add an ice cube and watch as it melts.
What is happening?
Do the colors mix?

Bubbles
Make or buy a bubble solution and experiment with different tools to blow bubbles, look for rainbows in the bubbles.

Over the Rainbow Hike
Take a walk outside and see how many different things you can find of each color.

Keep track of what you find.

Color Graphing
Graph the colors in a bag of Skittles or M&M’s.

Cooperation Game
Let your children work together to create this rainbow on the floor. Ask your children to look around the room, collect all the red objects in a pile.
Repeat with the remaining 5 rainbow colors.
Then let your children arrange the objects on the floor in a rainbow shape. First have them put all the red objects in a big arch, then the yellow objects under them and so on, until the rainbow is completed.

Spinning Colors
Cut a circle out of heavy paper. Divide the disk into 6 equal sections. Color each section a different color of the rainbow. Poke the circle onto the point of a sharpened pencil. Show the circle to the children. Ask them to predict what they will see when you spin the circle.

When the circle is spun, instead of seeing 6 colors, you will see white ( or close to white, depending on the purity of the colors and how equal the sections are).

This is the reverse of what happens when a rainbow is made from white light separated into the six colors seen. This experiment take those 6 colors and whirls them together to make white.

Glitter Sparkle Bottles
Remove the label from a clean, clear 16oz. plastic soda bottle. Pour at least 1/2 cup of light corn syrup into the bottle. Then add a few drops of food coloring and some glitter and/or confetti.

Hot glue the lid onto the bottle. Have the children swirl and shake the bottle and watch it’s movement. Use a certain color or a rainbow of colors!

Multi-color Binoculars
Children really enjoy looking through binoculars. Supplies -2 empty toilet paper rolls for each child, 2 rubber bands for each child Colored plastic wrap cut into squares about 4 x 4 inches (adjust as needed).

Take an empty roll and place a colored square evenly over one end of the roll. While holding it in place, put a rubber band over it to secure it. Repeat with the other roll and square.

Watch in delight as the kid’s explore their world in blue, pink, etc.

Rainbow Day
Have each child wear a different color.

 

RAINBOW Recipes and Snacks

Rainbow Pudding
Make vanilla pudding and divide it into three parts. Make one part red, one yellow, and one blue. Give children a color combination, and watch as new colors appear. Extension: With any extra pudding make finger paintings.

Rainbow Jell-O
Each day mix up a color of Jell-O, start with red. Pour small amount into a clear plastic cup. Allow to harden and then add orange. Follow this procedure with all the other colors, at the end of the week you will have your own rainbow.

Rainbow Toast
Pour several small cups of milk, add a variety of food coloring. Use new, clean paint brushes to paint on white bread. Try not to let the bread get too soggy. Toast your pictures and eat. The colors get very vibrant in the toaster.

Eat Fruit Loops for snack.

Make and eat Rice Krispie treats that are colored with food coloring.

 

RAINBOW Songs, Poems and Finger Plays

Rainbow Colors
(Tune: Hush, Little Baby)
Rainbow purple, rainbow blue
Rainbow green and yellow, too
Rainbow orange, rainbow red
Rainbow smiling overhead.
Come and count the colors with me
How many colors can you see?
One, two, three, down to green,
Four, five, six can be seen
Rainbow purple, rainbow blue,
Rainbow green and yellow, too.
Rainbow orange, rainbow red,
Rainbow smiling overhead.

Rainbow
(Tune: Mary Had a Little Lamb)
Rainbow over the waterfall, waterfall, waterfall,
Rainbow over the waterfall, Rainbow over the tree.
Rainbow over the mountain, mountain, mountain,
Rainbow over the mountain, Rainbow over the sea.
Rainbow over the flowers, flowers, flowers,
Rainbow over the flowers, rainbow over the bee
Rainbow over the dancers, dancers, dancers,
Rainbow over the dancers, Rainbow over me!!

Rainbow Script
Directions: Children learn the seven colors of the rainbow with this simple skit. You will need seven pieces of paper, any size, in the colors: red, organ, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.

Children hold the card down at arm’s length, in front of them. At this point all we see is the white back of the card. As they recite their lines they flip their color up. It is fun to watch the rainbow grow.

Be sure the children let their cards touch, then it will look like a real spectrum.

(Character Dialogue chorus)
Do you think that you would like to know the seven colors of the rainbow?

Class: Yes, we think we would like to know, the seven colors of the rainbow.

Red: Red is first, the first is red. Sunny rain showers make the color red.
Orange: Orange is second, the second is orange. Sunny rain showers make the color orange.
Yellow: Yellow is third, the third is yellow. Sunny rain showers make the color yellow.
Green: Green is fourth, the fourth is green. Sunny rain showers make the color green.
Blue: Blue is fifth, the fifth is blue. Sunny rain showers make the color blue.
Indigo: Indigo is sixth, the sixth is indigo. Sunny rain showers make the color indigo.
Violet: Violet is seventh, the seventh is violet. Sunny rain showers make the color violet.

Now that all the colors of the rainbow have been revealed, the rainbow chorus recites together:
“Sparkling prisms, Arching in the sky. A lovely rainbow. A feast for the eye.”

In England they use the following sentence to remember the colors of the rainbow. “Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain”

Rainbow Train
(Tune: The mulberry bush)

The rainbow train is coming to town coming to town, coming to town. The rainbow train is coming to town It’s moving very fast!

The rainbow train is full of toys Full of toys, full of toys The rainbow train is full of toys For all the girls and boys!

The red car’s filled with bats and balls Bats and balls, bats and balls. The red car’s filled with bats and balls For all the girls and boys.

The orange car’s filled with puzzles and blocks, Puzzles and blocks, puzzles and blocks. The orange car’s filled with puzzles and blocks For all the girls and boys.

The yellow car’s filled with dolls and planes, Dolls and planes, dolls and planes. The yellow car’s filled with dolls and planes, For all the girls and boys.

The green car’s filled with cars and boats, Cars and boats, cars and boats. The green car’s filled with cars and boats, For all the girls and boys.

The Blue car’s filled with whistles and drums, Whistles and drums, whistles and drums. The blue car’s filled with whistles and drums, For all the girls and boys.

The purple car’s filled with marbles and tops, Marbles and tops, marbles and tops. The purple car’s filled with marbles and tops, For all the girls and boys.

Red and orange, yellow and green Blue and purple cars I see. The rainbow train is here at last I’m glad it came so fast!

 

 

Dear Reader:  You can help us make this theme even better!

All of our theme ideas have come from our imagination and from reader submissions.  Please use this form to contact us if you have crafts, activities, games, recipes, songs or poems that you would like us to add to this theme.