I love rainbows. With St. Patrick’s Day around the corner rainbows have been popping up every time I sit down to brainstorm activities. This rainbow craft was particularly fun because it used things I am cleaning out of my craft dump closet, incorporates my son’s incredible love of pretend play (he’s a garbage sorter) and most every preschooler’s desire to sort.
You can do this in 2 parts – sorting one day, making a rainbow the next or if I was still teaching I’d do this as a cooperative group project. My 4-year-old did all the way up to putting the trash on then lost interest until I started putting some on. He ran back to the table saying he could do it better (is everything a competition in your house too? Sigh) so we did the gluing together. Make sure whatever materials you use are safe for the age/ability of child you are doing this with.
- Gather your materials. You will need a large piece of paper (I used a grocery bag cut open), glue, scissors, colored pencils/markers, 7 small containers, small squares of paper in the colors of the rainbow, a mixed mess of “garbage ” -paper/buttons/foam/plastic toys/ribbon in the colors of the rainbow.
- Next, fill a container up with all the “garbage”
- Start sorting by color.
- I was so pleased with how much he liked this part of the activity.
It seemed to go on and on forever as he pretended to need a coffee break from his job at the garbage sorting factory. We are not short on imagination in this house. - While he returned to work I made the rainbow with colored pencils.
- Time to add glue. We added two glue for a few colors at a time.
- Add the objects! We did this part together
- Add more glue.
- Add more objects.
- Let your rainbow craft dry.
Books About Rainbows
All our book lists include affiliate links.
Duckie’s Rainbow
Planting a Rainbow
This rainbow craft project too complicated for your toddler? Yesterday in my Link &Learn weekly linky this awesome rainbow project from Toddler Approved was linked. When I saw it after writing this post I knew it would be a perfect link to share as an option for younger kids so I added it in.
Want more great ideas for preschool activities? Check out our Build Preschool Thematic Curriculum Units!
Zoie @ TouchstoneZ says
Great idea and it creates less waste. My kids will love the unstructured sizes, shapes, and types of materials. Ds2 is a sorter. And both ds1 & ds2 love glueing. This will be a winner for sure. I’ll put Duckie’s Rainbow on hold at the library. We have Planting a Rainbow and a couple of other rainbow books to pull out for this, too.
melissa says
i am amazed at his attention span. my little one will read for hours and use scissors til the cows come home. but its really hard for me to keep her attentive through an entire project like this. but i will continue to give it my all.
this looks so so fun and i think she will enjoy it!!
thanks for sharingL:))
admin says
You know I rarely write my posts at one time, 2 kids tend to interrupt 2, 3, 4 times. So I sometimes don’t add the little side comments I should. I edited to add that we did the gluing together, he did loose interest once but was easily directed back. It is a long project so breaking it in two is a great option!
Great comment !
Toddler Approved says
Thanks for linking my project to your post. I love your trash sorting idea. I think both projects are fun because they can take all day and would be especially fun with a whole class working together. We have not read Planting a Rainbow, so we’ll definitely be adding that to our library list this week.
butterfly wishes and wonderland dreams says
fun rainbow and green too!
Josie says
This is so pretty! My daughters and I made this today and they enjoyed it.
Sheri says
Very pretty! My grand daughter will love trying this one. 😉
Lisa says
I saw this post a while back. The other day on Facebook I saw an ad on the side for daily schedule charts with cute themes like ladybugs, a football, and a tree with an owl. I showed it to my 5 year old and asked if she wanted to make one. She suggested a rainbow…and that’s when I remembered this post. We made your rainbow and turned it into our Daily Schedule! It has been a huge success. Thanks for the idea!
Folakemi Roberts says
This is awesome and creative.WELL DONE!!!!!
Cindy deRosier says
I’m the Editorial Assistant for Fun Family Crafts and I wanted to let you know that we have featured your trash rainbow! You can see it here:
http://funfamilycrafts.com/trash-rainbow/
If you have other kid friendly crafts, we’d love it if you would submit them. If you would like to display a featured button on your site, you can grab one from the right side bar of your post above. Thanks for a wonderful project idea!