Hayli Thompson

Art Rainbow Activity

Rainbow-themed activities including math, literacy, art, craft and sensory play.
TEKS: (b) Knowledge and skills (1) Perception. The student develops and organizes ideas from the environment. The student is
expected to: (B) identify color, texture, form, line, and emphasis in nature and in the human-made environment.
(2) Creative expression/performance. The student expresses ideas through original artworks, using a variety of media with
appropriate skill. The student is expected to:
(A) Invent images that combine a variety of colors, forms, and lines;
(B) Place forms in orderly arrangement to create designs;
(C) Increase manipulative skills, using a variety of materials to produce drawings, paintings, prints, and constructions.

Rainbow Play Station supplies:

-Information books on rainbows, color/light science and art color theory.
-Story books with a rainbow theme, including Rainbow Crow by Nancy Van Laan and The Rainbow Bear by
Michael Morpurgo.
-A selection of loose parts in rainbow colors: Spielgaben wooden tiles and rings, stacking cups, pumpkins in
rainbow shades.
-A selection of craft materials including paper, card, felt and tissue paper in rainbow colors, wooden clothes
pegs.
-A selection of writing/drawing materials in rainbow colors, including chalks, wax crayons, water color pencils.

Rainbow Math Activities

A collection of rainbow individual math activities, including number
recognition, addition, subtraction, math facts and number lines. In guided
practice or group work incorporate rainbow
color sorting and matching games.

Rainbow Literacy Activities

Rainbow writing brings together different
sensory ways of learning, making it suitable
for lots of different learning styles.
-See an eye-catching, visually-memorable
version of our word, for visual learners
- Following the flow of the word across the page, for kinesthetic learners
-Hear the word, as we say it out loud as we write, for auditory learners
-Repeat the word, as we use all the colors in our rainbow
Rainbow writing, you will need:
A set of colored pens, pencils, crayons or chalk: you can use all the colors of
the rainbow, or make a seasonal selection.
A surface to write on: paper, chalkboard, easel, floor outdoors in your garden.
It can help to have the space to write the words much larger than you would in
normal writing.

Hayli Thompson

Using the same set of colored paper rolls that we used for our rainbow
math activities, with the number cards swapped for a set that spell out the
word r-a-i-n-b-o-w. Another activity is to hide the paper rolls around the
room and see if they can go on a treasure hunt and find them all. Ask the
students, Can they recognize each letter, and spell out the word rainbow
again?

Play spelling games. Using the seven letters of the word rainbow, how many new words can you make? 2 nd
grade can find consonant-vowel-consonant words like win, ran, and bow. Or you might be able to make four,
five, or six letter words like worn, brown, and brain.

Rainbow Salt Tray Writting

To add in a hands-on sensory element to our writing and spelling practise is to use a salt tray. The children can
use their finger, a stick or a paint brush to write in the salt and they get the brain-boosting effect of being able to
really feel the letters as they make their marks. Get a baking sheet that has edges on all four sides, which is a
nice size to be able to write whole words in, and the edges help prevent spills. I made a rainbow stripe of card
and laid it down underneath a cloud of white salt. As the children write their words, the rainbow appears!

Hayli Thompson

This activity can be used to write individual letters or the alphabet, writing numbers, or drawing funny faces.
All the activities help with fine motor skills. Students learning sight words or spellings, using a salt tray, rather
than just a pencil and paper, is a fun, sensory way to help them practice.