I absolutely love this week’s #PlayfulPreschool theme! Rainbows! So many great ideas that I can’t wait to use them all! Be sure to check them out at the bottom of this post. My preschooler had a blast with our fine-motor rainbow art. She was begging for more after all the supplies had run dry, so I know this is an activity she will definitely want to repeat. In fact, we had so much fun, that I will be posting about an extension activity tomorrow! We have so many color activities to share with you!
Materials needed for Fine-Motor Rainbow Art:
White card stock (the thicker the better!)
School glue
Salt
Water droppers (I found these in the alcohol ink section of Hobby Lobby)
7 small containers (we used a weekly pill holder from the dollar store)
Water
More Color Fun: Free Color Sorting Mats & Spinner Game
The first thing I did was prepare the colored water. I love that the 7-day pill containers already had most of the colors of the rainbow. It was just missing indigo, but it did have a clear container that we used instead.
For the tiny containers I used the following liquid food coloring amounts:
Red: 10 drops red
Orange: 6 drops red, 4 drops yellow
Yellow: 10 drops yellow
Green: 10 drops green
Blue: 10 drops blue
Indigo: 6 drops blue, 3 drops red
Violet: 6 drops red, 5 drops blue
I will say in big.bold.letters….
This is a messy activity!
We were lucky enough to have a beautiful day, so we did our activity outside. If you do it inside, cover your space with a plastic table cloth and stay far away from your furniture.
(Don’t say I didn’t warn you…lol!)
More Color Learning Fun: Colors Preschool Mega Pack
How to create your rainbow:
Draw a rainbow with the glue. You need 7 lines (one for each color). Because Shiloh does not have the hand strength nor coordination to draw with the glue she had lots of help from Daddy while I took pictures.
After you are finished drawing with the glue, sprinkle salt liberally over all of the glue. When you are finished gently shake the paper back and forth to help the stray salt stick to the glue.
Using the droppers, squeeze the different colors of water onto the rainbow. I really loved the droppers that we got because they were long enough to reach over the paper without too much trouble and they were very easy to squeeze making them a perfect tool for Shiloh.
Lately Shiloh has been chatting up a storm. I think we’re around 100 words now with some really cute phrases (a huge change from a year ago). But one thing we thought she was struggling with was her colors.
Today, however, she was showing off!
Blue, reen, wed, runge, p ple.
She was repeating them so fast, and trying to dip her dropper at the same time that we were having a hard time keeping up with her! Daddy ditched me to go check some multiplication for daughter #2 and I was left alone with the color crazed child!
This was seriously one of the most fun activities we’ve done in a long time! It’s spurred all kinds of ideas, so be prepared for more color activities coming soon!
While this is a fun craft all by itself, we actually worked on a lot of different skills while we played:
Fine-motor skills (squeezing the dropper)
Hand-eye coordination (watching carefully to put the color in the correct place)
Speech skills (we worked on color names and really fun new word- Squeeze!)
Patience (oh wait, that was a skill I was learning!)
Check out what else we created after we finished with our rainbow!
Rainbow Letter Formation Sticky Wall by Still Playing School
Language Activities for Preschoolers: Rainbow Climb by Growing Book by Book
Rainbow Sensory Bin by Tiny Tots Adventures
Inventing Their Own Songs to Encourage Creativity by Capri + 3
Rainbow Domino Game by Rainy Day Mum
Rainbow Patterns with Blocks by Mom Inspired Life
Scented Rainbow Science and Sensory Play by Fun-A-Day
Preschool Engineering with Rainbows by Natural Beach Living
Design a Rainbow Technology Connection by The Educators’ Spin On It
Disappearing Rainbow Colors by Learning to Walk
Rainbow Ice and Salt Experiment for Preschool by Powerful Mothering.
Danielle says
This turned out awesome! So pretty. How awesome that Shiloh has 100 words now!
Kim says
Yes, we’re very excited by her progress!
Cerys says
I love making art with salt. Can’t wait to give this a try with my kids they both will love it.
Kim says
I’m sure they will have fun!
Theresa says
I love this activity. I know our kids would have a blast trying this out. It is also great for developing focus by remembering which glue line is which color.
Kim says
Very true! Especially when you have a child who is generally not good at focusing!
Jodie @ Growing Book by Book says
Such a fun way to combine art, science and fine motor skills!
Kim says
Thanks! She really enjoyed it!
Susan Schloss says
Thank you for sharing.
Gabby. P says
I love this idea!! Is there anything else we can use besides the small droppers? Just in case there a child who has a hard time using the small dropper.