Rainbow Craft for Preschoolers

Though my kids get a lot of time to choose their own creative play, I’m a fan of keeping them constructively and creatively busy (which is not to be confused with assigning “busy work.”). And if my very busy four-year-old doesn’t have something supervised to do, she’ll often create her own creative projects–like practicing her newly learned scissor skills on anything she can hack those dull child-size blades through (important papers, hair, baby sister’s shirt–you get the idea. . .). This Rainbow Craft for preschoolers keeps kids constructively and creatively busy as they make a fridge-worthy art display and practice a few essential preschool skills: cutting, pasting, sorting, and color recognition.

Creating a Cut-and-Paste Rainbow Craft

Give kids scraps of construction paper with the directions to “cut away!” (keeping the pieces on the table). After they cut to their heart’s content, gather the cut pieces and save them in a plastic bag for another day, or continue on with the craft.

Have kids sort the cut papers into separate color piles.

Print the rainbow outline (download below) and show how to glue the cut scraps inside the rainbow’s arches. During this step we reviewed the color order of rainbows as I encouraged using the glue to “cover all the white spaces” and “try to stay in the lines.”

The project is simple, but a good way for preschoolers to practice their cutting, gluing, and sorting in a creative and constructive way. My preschooler was quite proud of her final results and it looks so fresh and bright hanging on the fridge!

Download the Rainbow Cut-and-Paste Template Here!