Rainbow Activities

There is something magical about rainbows, no matter your age! My kids always have fun looking for a rainbow after a spring shower. Here are a few rainbow themed activities to enjoy this Spring.

First, a quick warm up… head outside and find a dry spot to sit in your driveway. You will need some chalk. Sit with your legs crossed on the ground. Make 2 small marks – these will be the start/finish of your rainbow. Encourage your child to stay in the criss cross position while connecting the 2 marks with a big arch. Repeat a few times and then switch colors. This activity targets crossing the midline, visual tracking, and upper extremity strength.

Next, a quick and easy rainbow craft. Here’s what you will need:

colored paper (rainbow colors) cut into 2 inch squares
white glue or glue stick
scissors
piece of cardboard or cardstock cut in the shape of a rainbow
cotton balls (optional)

Creativity is encouraged here! I asked the kids to glue the sqaures onto the cardboard in any way that they would like to make a rainbow. For me, this about the process and the skill… not the product. You can use a glue stick or white glue. Using a bottle of glue is always a good skill to work on. It is hard for kids to make just a dot of glue. This activity requires executive functioning skills to be able to plan and execute their plan for their design. It also will take self regulation skills to use the glue and complete the project. We added cotton ball clouds at the end.

Adaptations:

To make this activity easier, make a mark on the cardboard where you want your child to place the colored square. You can limit the amount this way.
To make this task harder, make the colored squares smaller. This will require increased fine motor precision, as well as self regulation to complete the task.

For older students, you can extend this activity with a writing prompt to work on handwriting. Here’s what we did…