“Colour is joy. One does not think joy. One is carried by it.” ~Ersnt Haas
We love colour! Lots and lots of colour! Colour makes us happy, and today we are surrounded by it! We started off with making a pretty rainbow necklace that we spotted on Pinterest and changed up a little. And then the day just grew into a celebration of rainbow colours! We did 4 different activities with the same 6 sheets of paper!
1. RAINBOW COLOUR SORTING NECKLACES
This activity came from an idea I spotted on Pinterest a LONG time ago. The necklaces were built to show the child’s place in the world, and they were built in the descending colours of the rainbow. Have a look here, they are fabulous! I decided to change them up a bit to turn the activity into a colour sorting, colour matching craft activity.
Start out with 6 coloured sheets of paper, 7 if you have two different shades of purple. ( I did not, so we just have 6.)
*I used different sized plates, cups, and bowls to make the circles.
Offer an assortment of craft materials for the children to sort through and match up to the corresponding circles…
This activity is rich with all kinds of skill practicing, including colour recognition, word recognition, and fine motor skill practice…
2. RAINBOW SHOWERS
The second activity uses all the left-over bits of paper from crafting the necklaces…
Once the pieces are torn up, the fun begins in earnest! Tossing the paper in the air and having it land where it might, brings joy and giggles to all the players…especially the baby!
3. RAINBOW PUDDLE
Everyone knows that when there are showers, there are puddles! I gave the smalls a bowl of water and had them gather up the rainbow “drops” and toss them in. My floor got cleaned up, and the smalls continued to have a grand old time!
The smalls were delighted with the brightly coloured bits of paper they could squeeze into balls and swish around in the water…
And what colourful hands they had!
4. PAPER-MAKING
I am about to show you how to make your own paper with the most UNsophisticated equipment, and it won’t cost you a dime! We used a screen from our playroom window, cake pans and pie dishes, a sponge from under the sink, a Tupperware bread bowl, a ladle, and a blender. That’s it! 
*We had quite a bit of slush from our Rainbow Puddle, so we had to divide the blending process into 2 batches. It doesn’t matter how much water is in your slush, as it all comes out through the screen later.
*I did the sponging myself, as it is tricky business. The point is to push water out and to suck water up without lifting the pulp off the screen.
Some of the children chose to pour their sludge into animal shapes…
Once the sponging is finished, the smalls can begin helping again by placing their pans over the sludge and pressing down lightly…
*The flipping of the pan and screen might be best done by an adult. Once the pan was flipped and the screen was removed, the smalls enjoyed feeling the wet “soon to be paper” …
When their papers are dry, you can divvy up the markers or paint and they can get creative once again!
What a wonderful day of rainbows we had today! And not one speck of paper was wasted! Happy earth, happy kids, happy mama!
Thanks for stopping by!
~Arlee, Small Potatoes
