Easy Rainbow Craft for Toddlers and Preschoolers

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This simple rainbow craft starts with a fun sensory activity of squishy paint to form the clouds. It’s so satisfying and just one of the fun things that this craft has to offer. Make it on the next rainy day stuck indoors to keep your spirits bright and sunny.

This is a great activity for kids of all ages but especially for preschoolers and toddlers because it’s a great way to practicing fine motor skills as each of the colors of the rainbow is put into place. Older kids will enjoy really making it their own.

I bet you’ve never heard of craft flashcards…Of course you haven’t…because I totally made it up 🙂 As a pediatric Occupational Therapist, I’ve witnessed kids struggle to complete multi-step activities. So, I came up with this brilliant (if I do say myself) way to break down crafts into bite-sized pieces in the form of flashcards.

These are especially perfect for those kiddos who have limited attention spans.

Crafts are such a great developmental tool for kids (improves motor planning, attention span, executive functioning, fine motor skills, language development and more), and using flashcards makes planning crafts for your kids to enjoy even easier.

Just print out a few of your favorites onto cardstock, cut them into the cards with a hole in the corner and place them on a keyring that you can connect to your craft supply bag (which you can fill using our master list of supplies that we stick to for every single one of the projects in the flashcard collection). It’s so simple.

And the best part is that there’s not a screen in sight. Technology is such a great thing, but it’s also nice to take a break from it once in awhile and let the brain explore in other ways. Click the image to learn more about our collection of 100 Craft Flashcards for Kids.

Fun Facts About Rainbows

Rainbow comes from a Latin word meaning “rainy arch”.
There is no set number of rainbow colors or rainbow order.
No two people see the exact same rainbow since they are an optical phenomenon.
Rainbows can exist anywhere that light meets water.
Earth is the only planet with rainbows.

For more interesting facts about rainbows, check out this article by Love to Know.

Save this Spring Craft for later. Pin it to your favorite Pinterest board…

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How to make a Simple Rainbow Craft

We used traditional rainbow colors for our rainbow art, but feel free to choose your favorite colors. For younger kids, this is a great opportunity to practice color recognition.

Check Out the Rainbow Craft Video Tutorial:

CRAFT SUPPLIES FROM THE BAG

Construction paper (shade of blue)
White paint
Glue stick
Tissue paper squares (colors of the rainbow)

It’s our goal here to keep crafting with your kids simple and as mess free as possible so that you can get right to the fun stuff. That’s why we stick to a master list of basic craft supplies to make all of the amazing creative projects you see here.

Tissue Paper Rainbow Craft Instructions:

Step 1: Fold the Paper

Grab a piece of blue construcition paper and fold it in half.

Rainbow craft step 1 folding the paper in half

Step 2: Make Your Clouds

Open up the paper.
On one side at the bottom, place about 5-6 small dots of white paint.
Be careful not to put on too much paint. You can always add more later.

Step 3: Squish Paint

Close the paper and press lightly on the paper where the paint is.
Open the paper back up to see the clouds you have created.
If needed, add a couple more dots of paint and repeat the process.

Step 4: Make an Arch

The next step is to create the outer portion of your rainbow shape, going from cloud to cloud, using your glue stick.
If needed, use a pencil to draw the shape first.

Step 5: Add Some Color

Begin applying tissue paper squares along the rainbow arch you created with your glue stick.

*If you don’t have tissue paper on hand, tear smaller pieces of colorful construction paper up to create your simple rainbow craft.

Step 6: Finish Off Your Fun Craft

The last step is to continue adding glue rows for additional colors to create beautiful rainbows.

Rainbow craft for kids step 6 made with painted clouds and tissue paper square for colors or rainbow

Do I have to get out the paint?

You can skip the paint if you’d like. I know that it’s not always possible due to the messy nature. There are a variety of different materials you can use for the clouds instead. My top choice would be to glue cotton balls on for the clouds, pulling the cotton to make it fluffy. You can also use white pompoms, scrunched up white tissue paper, cut out white construction paper clouds or simply draw them with a white crayon.