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

Hooray for St. Patrick's Day

Gathering Activity:   Rainbow Bottles

We made these adorable rainbow bottles from Little Wonders Days.

Materials Needed: Colorful pom poms of various sizes, rice, empty and dry water bottle, funnels

Directions:
1-Put rainbow pom poms inside of the water bottle.  (This is great fine motor practice, especially as they try to place the large pom poms inside the small opening).

2-Funnel Rice into the bottle. We filled ours about half way.

3-Place the lid on the bottle and shake!

Circle Time : Hooray for St. Patrick's Day by Joan Holub

We read Hooray for St. Patrick's Day! This is a cute book with lift up flaps and a hidden Leprechaun on each page.  The children took turns searching for him.  It is a simple explanation about some of the traditions associated with St. Patrick's Day.

We sang I'm A Little Leprechaun. 

We also watched and sang along with Rachel Coleman  from Signing Time's "Rainbow Song" from My Favorite Things. 

Snack: Shamrock Pretzels

We ate these adorable Shamrock Pretzels we found on Family Fun's website.  We also added yummy green grapes!

Art Activity: Shamrock Painting 

Materials Needed: Finger paint paper, yellow and blue paint 

Directions: Cut a large shamrock shape from finger-painting paper. Put a squirt of yellow and a squirt of blue paint on the shamrock. Have the children mix the colors together to create green.  

Games

1- Search For the Leprechaun's Gold

Hide gold coins and gold wrapped candy for the children to find.  As they find the gold, have them return it to a pot.  

When all of the gold has been collected, have the children sort the candy and coins into two different piles.  We then divided the candy together as a group and let each child eat one piece.

2-Pass the Shamrock

We played music and passed a green shamrock around the circle.  When the music stopped, the child holding the shamrock ran around the circle.  

3-Leprechaun, Leprechaun, Where's Your Gold?

This is a game played like "Doggy, Doggy, Where's Your Bone?" A gold coin is hidden behind a child's back and another child sneaks up and takes the coin.  The Leprechaun then tries to guess which child has the coin.  We let the children guess until they find the coin.  

Follow-up:  My son and I do lots of fun activities without our Mommy and Friends as well.  This was a fun one that I wish I had thought of BEFORE class so we could have done it with all of our friends.

4-Rainbow Pom Pom Sort

We used our stackable balls and placed the halves upside down on our table.  Using a clothespin, my son sorted colorful pompoms into the holes of the corresponding colors.  So many great skills.  Fine motor development, sorting, counting, etc...

We also enjoyed this fun St. Patrick's Day sensory box. 

The Napping House

Special Instructions: Wear your favorite pajamas and bring a flashlight.

Gathering Activity: We sat on blankets and read stories about bedtime with our moms.

Circle Time: We read The Napping House by Audrey and Don Wood.  We sang songs about rain and nap time.  We had plush animal versions of each of the story book characters and acted out the story over and over and over again. Each child took a turn being different animals. So many giggles!

Art Activity:  Marshmallow Rainbows

Materials Needed: Pastel colored mini marshmallows, glue, pre-drawn rainbow outlines.

Instructions: Help your child pour the glue in one part of the rainbow and fill with coordinating rainbow color.  Repeat until all sections are filled.

Snack:  Snack Houses and of course, leftover mini marshmallows (because it would be cruel not to let them eat them).
Materials needed: Create individual kits for each child:
9 wheat things per child, 1 cheese triangle for roof, 1 small cheese rectangle for chimney, 1 large rectangle for door, 1 raisin for door knob.
Instructions: Allow each child to assemble their homes and then enjoy! 

Playtime Activity: We played 3 games.
Who is Under the blanket? : We had a stuffed animal to represent each of the characters in the story.  The children took turns leaving the room with their mom and return to guess which animal is hiding under the blanket.

 

Sleeping Animals: Each child pretends to be one of the characters sleeping and tries to lie as still as possible when the game leader calls out. "Go to sleep!" until the game leader calls out "Ouch a wakeful flea bit me!"  then everyone jumps up and makes the sound of his or her animal.

Make a Rain Storm: We used a rain stick, instruments, and flashlights to make a rain storm.  The children brought a flash light from home.    We took turns doing all of the parts of the storm.