A Rainbow of My Own

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All of our activities this week were inspired by the wonderful children's book, A Rainbow of My Own by Don Freeman. 

Gathering Activity: Rainbow Colored Spaghetti Noodles

I loved these rainbow colored spaghetti noodles when I saw them on The Imagination Tree blog.  I knew they had to be part of our rainbow day.  We followed the directions found on their blog to make them.  

Our kids had a great time with this wonderful sensory activity.  They were extremely engaged with the rainbow colored spaghetti noodles.  They squished, smelled, and yes, even tasted these noodles.  I didn't notice this on the Imagination Tree's blog, but that was the first thing our little ones did, stick it immediately in their mouths. (Thank goodness they are nontoxic).  Even our little ones who are pretty hesitant with most sensory activities got into the messy fun!  Our hands were VERY oily afterwards, but that was easily remedied with soap and water.

Circle Time

 

We read the Don Freeman classic,  A Rainbow of My Own.  (If you are unfamiliar with this author, he also wrote Corduroy).  The story is sweet and simple.  A child sees a rainbow and chases it, until it disappears.  Then the child imagines that the rainbow returns to play and belongs just to the child.  Each picture depicts delightful scenes of pretend as the child plays with the rainbow.  When the child returns home, a rainbow is on the wall of the child's bedroom, made from the sun shining through a fish bowl.  I love how the story never really indicates a specific gender, leaving the readers to picture themselves as the main character. 

We sang this cute song by Jean Warren. 
 

GREAT BIG RAINBOW
Sung to: "I'm a Little Teapot"
There's a great, big rainbow
In the sky,
With pretty colors
Way up high.
When it starts to rain
And the sun comes out-
A beautiful rainbow
Will pop out!

Snack: Rainbow Fruit Pizza
 

One of the moms made a large fruit pizza shaped like an arc using sugar cookie dough as the crust.  She topped it with cream cheese frosting and then fruit.  We  cut each child a slice so that they could  all have a rainbow of their own.

Art: Rainbow Art Collages
 

We were inspired by the lovely collages on katherine marie's blog.  

We made our own by providing the children with pre-drawn and colored rainbows on half sheets of poster board and pre-color-sorted collage supplies.  (My 4 and 7 year old sons colored the rainbows for us before class).

 The children color matched an assortment of stickers, felt, paper, feathers, pom poms, ribbon, and foam pieces onto the rainbow.  

The kids enjoyed this project and really got the concept of matching the colors.  However, the size of the rainbow was too large to hold about half of our kids' interest, and we had a couple of moms left alone to finish the project at the end. I would recommend  one-fourth of a poster board if I was to repeat the activity.

Activities:Rainbow Streamers and Bubbles
 

1-Rainbow Streamers: We danced outside with Rainbow Wind Streamers that we made by following the directions on one of my very favorite blogs, Toddler Approved.  I love that these used surveying tape instead of paper streamers.  They were durable and we can use them again and again!

 

2-Rainbow Bubbles: We blew bubbles outside and looked for rainbows in the bubbles.  It was a beautiful day where we lived.  Perfect for creating memories with our little ones.
 

You can sing this cute Rainbows in My Bubbles song found here on Preschool Music Express. 

RAINBOWS IN MY BUBBLES
Tune:  “She’ll Be Coming ‘Round The Mountain”
I’ve got rainbows in my bubbles, yes I do.
I’ve got rainbows in my bubbles, yes I so.
When I blow up towards the sun,
They have rainbows, every one.
I’ve got rainbows in my bubbles, yes I do.
                                               Jean Warren