This is a great activity for toddlers to do for St. Patrick’s Day and a very cool way to make a rainbow!
Do your kids love making rainbows?
A rainbow is almost one of the first things that kids learn to draw. I remember drawing hundreds of them when I was in kindergarten.
Maybe it’s their simple shape that makes rainbows so fun to draw, or maybe kids love making them because they get to use every colour in the paint tray or crayon box when they’re drawing them.
I’m not sure what it is, but if your kids are mad about rainbows, then they’ll think this art technique is just the coolest!
Paper plates would be perfect to use for this process, but we just use plain white cardboard to make our rainbows.
I discovered this method for painting rainbows the other day when one of the children had painted a paper plate with rainbow colours. After painting, the child was practicing her scissor skills, and she cut the plate in half. It occurred to me that this could be a really cool way to make a rainbow craft.
After all, a rainbow is basically a semi circle, and two semi circles make up a circle, so it makes perfect sense that if you painted your rainbow in a circle, and cut it in two, you’d end up with two rainbows, right?
I decided to do it with the toddlers today, and the process and the results were really cool. Let me show you!
An Easy Way To Make A Rainbow:
To start, a circle on to a piece of paper or cardboard.Â
Then, paint the centre of your circle purple, and in rainbow order, paint larger circles around the purple centre until you send with red at the outer edge of your circle.
I was working with 2’s and 3’s, so understandably, their colours got mixed up and a little muddy,
Here are some photos of the rainbows I made myself so you’ll have an idea of how they’ll look if you make them with an older child.
Because young children are inclined to smear their paint around, the whole circle-painting thing was challenging for them.
To help them paint a steady circle, I placed my finger on their cardboard and suggested they follow my finger around the circle with their paintbrush.
That worked quite well.
When the paint has dried, simply cut your circle in half, and voila! You’ll have two rainbows!
We added some cotton ball clouds and threaded ribbon through all the rainbows and turned them into colourful garlands.
More Rainbow Activities:
Rainbow Collage
Rainbow Drinking Water
Rainbow Playdough
Rainbow Rice
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Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.
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entertainingmonsters
I thought the circles were quite pretty but then i saw the rainbow bunting – wow! I really hope I can get my 2 year old to do this. I NEED rainbow bunting.
Aleacia @ Dilly-Dali Art
I love that you turned it into garland. I personally like the muddled colors. The ground is always muddy after rain when there’s a rainbow! 🙂
Marie
I LOVE this. That garland is darling. Thanks for the link love, happy you guys had fun with it!
hisveganmama
Love this! Making it next week! Stopping by via the Kids Coop!
happyhooligans
Glad you liked it! Have fun making yours, and feel free to link up a picture on my facebook wall when you do. I’d love to see it!
Rebekah @ The Golden Gleam
So pretty!! I am laughing at myself bc I thought I was being “so” original with my rainbow idea that my daughter and I are doing today, and here I see one very similar. Our’s is a bit different, but it shows that great minds think alike. =) The rainbow garland is gorgeous!!! I bet
On an unrelated note, I noticed the yogurt containers in your background. We use yogurt containers for outdoor play too. When we go to our public park’s sandbox, I bring a supply of them, and we end up being the most popular family at the park. And I don’t have to worry about them getting lost.
Jennifer
i loved the ones the children made , they look like planets
Nancy
I love it. I may have to try this one next week, if I can get my little ones to do it. Great decoration for my very colorful Daycare room.
http://www.lilcaboosedaycare.vpweb.com
Vicky
What a great idea! Love how they came out and your new look rocks!
happyhooligans
Thanks for your feedback, Vicky! Glad you like the new look!
Maureen
I think I’ll try this on an old record player – see how it works.
Thanks for the inspiration.
happyhooligans
Great idea, Maureen! I wish I could get my hands on an old record player!
jessicalehman
This is adorable! I’ll have to try it with my two. I’m always looking for creative crafts to do with them. I think they would love this!
happyhooligans
Thanks, Jessica. You’ll find lots of creative craft ideas if you have a look around my blog! I just popped over to yours. I didn’t spend a lot of time there, but I LOVED what I did see. Your photography skills and your passion for the camera was enough to make me click “follow”! I can’t wait to see what you’re up to!
Krissy @ B.Inspired Mama
I love how you turned them into garland. They look so great for 2’s and 3’s! Thanks for linking up with us this week in the Kids Co-op. I’ll be featuring your rainbows in this weeks post on Friday.
happyhooligans
Wow! That’s super, Krissy! Glad you liked them so much! 🙂
happyhooligans
I love the spin that you put on yours!
cerys @ rainy Day mum
These are so cute – I’m going to try them with J in the week, he will love the range of colours and we’ve been practising our rainbow songs this week as well.
Thank you for linking up to Tuesday Tots look forward to seeing you next week
Michelle Jarvis
Thank you so much for your page. I love, love, love it. it has kept my 2 lovelies busy the last 2 days (since i found you) and will do for the rest of the year.. Your ideas are so easy, cheap & best of all it brings a smile to their faces. thank you.
happyhooligans
So glad you found us, Michelle! And so happy that you’re loving our ideas! You’re in the right place if you’re looking for inexpensive and easy! I hope to keep you inspired for a good long time! Thanks so much for joining us! x
Laura
Great idea! Perfect craft for my son’s snow day. My six year old and two year old had fun creating rainbows and the bunting is now hanging on our mantle.
Pink and Green Mama, MaryLea
These are so SO so CUTE!!! I love them and would be so honored if you would be wiling to link them up to my St. Patty’s day linky party. I can’t wait to make one with my own girls, the banner idea is genius and so kid friendly! http://www.pinkandgreenmama.blogspot.com/2013/03/favorite-st-patricks-day-crafts-and.html
Warmly,
MaryLea
happyhooligans
Thanks, MaryLea! I’ll head on over now. 🙂
Esen Bozkaya
This was a fantastic idea to use in my ESL pre-school classroom. I teach 18 five year olds in Istanbul so we split them into two groups as we made the rainbows BIG (on A2 card). The children were really enthusiastic and it was a perfect opportunity to practise colour vocabulary. Once they had dried we cut them out; cut them in half (introducing the word semi-circle and then using a template the children cut out a butterfly shape. This meant each child had a radiant rainbow and a beautiful butterfly. What followed was really awesome…lots of racing each other around the room with their butterflies (mainly the boys) and introducing their butterflies to one another (mainly the girls). I love your ideas and the challenge of adapting them to work in my busy (sometimes crazy) classroom Thank you for the inspiration.
Esen
happyhooligans
Fabulous, Esen! I’m so glad your students loved the process. Sounds like you integrated a lot of learning into the activity. What a wonderful teacher you must be. Thanks so much for following along with me. I love that you’re enjoying our activities and using them as inspiration in your classroom. x
Hillary
Hi! I just wanted to let you know that I was very inspired by this lesson, and I used the circle rainbow idea as a step one in my preschool art class. I have referenced your post in my blog
Thanks! Hillary
happyhooligans
Love your rainbows, Hillary! The buttons, the clouds, it all looks so bright and inviting! I’m so glad you liked the activity. Thank you for crediting my site in your post!
happyhooligans
Love the spin that you put on your rainbows, Laura! They look great. 🙂