This recycled art project is great because it never really has to be done, also it’s a cooperative project that you and your child or a group can do together. You can make it for St.Patrick’s Day or just to brighten a rainy day with lots of color.
- Gather your Materials. For the back of the rainbow I have used some extra wrapping paper but you can use anything, in the past I have used brown grocery bags taped together and it looked great! Glue is great for older preschoolers but if you are worried about the mess or if you have a glue eater ( I know I do! ), try some double stick tape!
- Draw a rainbow, it doesn’t have to be perfect or even good, the paper will cover it .
- Get scrap paper or if you don’t have that you can color some the colors you want. Then hand the paper to whoever loves to rip things, my 14 month old loved this part of the project.
- Decide what order you want and start putting the paper in the arches.
- Keep going and going- roll it up and wait until the next rainy day to add more scrap paper to it.
In my classroom a few years ago I used this activity as an alternative to going outside when it was raining, throughout the week we would save scrap paper and on a rainy day add it to our rainbow. The children who were 2-3 loved it and when it was done were very proud when I hung it up where their parents could see it. A long term project is a great experience for little ones, so don’t worry about finishing it in one try!
I did that project with my kids last summer and it was so fun. Great blog!
love rainbows! they are soo pretty!
This is perfect. I’m working on colors with the little one I watch. Once I get through the colors I’ll do this as an end project. CSM from BTB
I am going to do this with my boys! How fabulous!
I love this idea. I’ll start working on gathering scraps.
Thanks – it’s easily my favorite project. When I did it originally many years ago the kids had so much fun with it and it hung in my classroom for ages.
Just was looking at rainbow projects and saw this. Love when I realize after the fact that I basically did the same project as someone else. 🙂 This is so cute. We made one from valentines and it was a lot of fun!