Top 5 Montessori-Inspired Rainbow Activities for Daycare

 Rainbows fascinate daycare students. Because they have a limited experience of the world, the rainbow is a magical event, and being allowed to explore and experiment with rainbows is the beginning of some awesome fun. Here are 5 activities that will engage children, build muscular function, and give them hands-on lessons in math and geometry.

1. Drawing Rainbows
   Drawing and coloring rainbows is a great activity for daycare children to get familiar with the concept of a rainbow. Not only do these activities promote the development of fine motor control, they also teach things like color recognition and proportions.

2. Rainbow Finger Paints
   Children love to get their hands on the things they are learning, and finger-painting rainbows is a perfect opportunity. This is also a great activity for quiet time because each child can be expected to display their own creativity and work independently.

3. Colors of the Spectrum
   A bright flashlight and a clear glass of water are all you need to demonstrate how rainbows work. Turn out the lights and shine the light through the water on a wall or whiteboard to create a rainbow of colors seemingly out of nowhere.

4. Rainbow Art
   Paste a sheet of coarse sandpaper to a board or other flat surface and cut a variety of yarn colors into strips of different lengths. Children can then use the yarn to create rainbows because there is enough cling power in the sandpaper to hold each strand in place as the next is arranged next to it. Save your yarn and sandboard for use in other projects and science investigations.

5. Bead Rainbows
   Pipe cleaners and beads of many colors are also a creative way to make rainbow shapes. Simply slide beads onto the padded wire. Kids can either put matching beads on different cleaners or alternate colors on one for a rainbow-colored object that can be formed into a bracelet or other shapes.

Rainbows fit well into any part of the preschool curriculum, from science to math to reading, language, and more. The curved pattern is easy to mimic, and the science beneath real rainbows is like a look into a magician’s magic hat.