Rainbow fun

So now that March has arrived, we're in full on Spring mode!  All the snowmen and snowflakes came down, and it's time to add some color to our world again.  What better way to do than with RAINBOWS! 

 How very sweet of my text colors to be in rainbow order.  How did I never notice that before?

Some of the activities we've done so far: (Insert 12 year old sarcasm "What, is it like, national rainbow month or something?"  Ahh.  The joys of a 7 year age difference in my princesses.)


A mixed media/sensory collage rainbow.  I traced a rainbow and wrote the color words in each arc.  Little princess has enough beginning sound knowledge to figure them out.  (We did leave out indigo, I wasn't that ambitious).  Then we began the hunt through the house.  NOTHING was off limits - we used foam stickers, napkins, tissue paper, leaves, cut up a washcloth, ribbons, bows, glitter glue, markers, buttons, colored glue, shreds for gift baskets, fabric scraps, cut out pictures from catalogs, grocery bags, and mylar balloons!  This was definitely a process over product project, but I am pleased with the results.

Rainbow breakfast:
I'm not especially proud of this one, but going to share anyway.  We decided to make a rainbow yogurt plate.  This was GREAT fun to work with color mixing, as we used food dyes.  That's the part I'm not proud of.  I try very hard to keep food dyes out of my girls as much as possible, and then I load up a plate of yogurt with them. BOO! The upside is that they spent much more time mixing up the colors than eating the yogurt. The end result didn't look a lot like a typical rainbow, but it was a fun learning experiment!

 The good part of the breakfast were rainbow fruit  kabobs.  I'm starting to let little princess (5) work with a real knife - GASP! - if closely supervised.  She helped to cut the strawberries and bananas.  Little Princess  threaded strawberry slices, orange  pieces, banana slices, green grapes, and purple grapes onto skewers.  If we had had blueberries, that would have been the blue.  I loved this activity, as we incorporated color words, patterns, fine motor, nutrition information,  and practical life skills.  (No picture, but I'm sure you get the idea).  The yogurt was deemed a dipper for the fruits, to preserve the rainbow, but then they decided the fruit was better on it's own and turned the yogurt into brown blobs before washing it down the sink!

I spy a rainbow
I pulled this out of my brain on the  car ride to my Mom's house Sunday.  Quick, involved the whole family, and fun.  Similar to the ABC spy game, but we had to find rainbow colors in rainbow order.  We found 5 in 5 minutes!


Other ideas I've pinned to do this month:

Source: prekandksharing.blogspot.com via Taryn on Pinterest

Crystallized rainbows:

Source: eisforexplore.blogspot.com via Taryn on Pinterest

Rainbow Sensory Bin

Source: playcreateexplore.com via Taryn on Pinterest

Clothespin  Butterfly - Going to make this in "rainbow order" also.

Source: indietutes.blogspot.com via Taryn on Pinterest

And since rainbows and unicorns go together in my mind, I'd alter this to have a rainbow in the backdrop:

Source: beingcreativewithkids.blogspot.com via Taryn on Pinterest

Books we love for rainbows:

What Makes a Rainbow by Betty Ann Schwartz

A Rainbow of My Own by Don Freeman



Other resources:
My favorite Rainbow Song. EVER. by Greg and Steve.  NOT exactly rainbow order, but awesome song.
The World is a Rainbow

My second (close second) rainbow song.  Israel Kamakawiwo'ole Somewhere Over the Rainbow  You Tube video

I like this Rainbow Song from You Tube because it is calming, and displays the color words.  I must admit that it bothers me a bit, as it's not true to the ROY G BIV rainbow - it does blue, purple, pink; since pink is Little Princess's favorite color, I deal with it.


Colors of the Rainbow Signing Time  on You Tube


Noah's Ark tie-ins
The 1959 Disney Noah's ark video series on You Tube.  Reminds me of Rankin Bass!
Part 1 Part 2  It doesn't have a rainbow in it, but I tie rainbows to this Biblical lesson.

Animated Arky Arky song also on You Tube.

And for those with older princes and princesses - we love to watch this modern interpretation of Noah's Ark - Evan Almighty


And why the obsession with rainbows, to answer my 12 year old's question.  They make me happy.  Happiness is a good thing, Martha.

I'll leave you with this.   I love the beginning of this poem titled "If I could catch a rainbow" by Sandra Lewis Pringle:

If I could catch a rainbow

I would do it just for you.

And share with you it's beauty

on the days you are feeling blue.

What's your favorite rainbow activity?

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