Free Rainbow Preschool Lesson Plans
Bright colors, hands-on activities, and playful learning come together in these free rainbow preschool lesson plans. Use rainbows in your fun preschool theme ideas and find new ways to introduce a variety of early learning concepts while making preschool fun.
These lesson plans for preschoolers include activities that explore color recognition, science, math, and early literacy in a way that feels like play. Whether painting rainbows, experimenting with color mixing, or sorting objects by shade, children build important skills while having fun.
With a mix of structured lessons and open-ended exploration, a rainbow theme brings vibrant learning opportunities to the preschool classroom.
Rainbows are more than just beautiful—they’re also a fantastic way to introduce a variety of learning concepts in preschool! With these free rainbow preschool lesson plans, you can bring colorful, engaging activities into the classroom that support early development in math, science, literacy, and fine motor skills.
A rainbow theme naturally sparks curiosity, making it easy to keep young learners engaged while they practice important developmental skills.
These lesson plans for preschoolers include playful activities like sorting objects by color, painting rainbows, and even simple science experiments that show how rainbows form. Beyond color recognition, a rainbow theme also introduces patterning, counting, and early writing skills. These activities blend structured learning with creative exploration.
Best of all, rainbow-themed lessons can be adapted for different skill levels, ensuring that every child can participate and grow. And, they’re super low prep and only require materials readily found at home or in your classroom.
Get ready for a week filled with color, creativity, and exciting learning experiences!
Read this: 20+ Free Rainbow Activities for Preschoolers
Rainbow Lesson Plans for Preschoolers
Bright and cheerful, a rainbow spotted feels like a moment of magic! These hands-on rainbow activities are perfect for little hands to engage in colorful learning.
Literacy Activities for a Rainbows Preschool Theme
Rainbow Letters Race to the Top – This letter identification game is such fun and really easy to prepare. You’ll need blank dice or letter dice to play. Invite your preschooler to roll the die and identify the letter. Add lower case letters to the dice, since the game boards have upper case letters, so once the letter on the dice is identified, the upper case letter must be matched on the game board. Continue until one letter has been rolled so many times that its column is full and has reached the top.
Beginning Sound Rainbow Puzzles – These beginning sounds rainbow puzzles will have your preschooler learning early phonics while having fun! These are great for use alongside a sand tray. Preschoolers love to practice writing their letters in sand or sugar trays which also helps them build fine motor skills and hand strength to begin using writing utensils.
Rainbow Picture Books
These rainbow picture books are perfect for introducing color words and color matching to young children. Take a look at some of our favorite rainbow books below, just click on the titles for more information!
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- Hardcover Book
- Sweeney, Monica (Author)
- Freeman, Don (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- Bauer, Marion Dane (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- Rustad, Martha E. H. (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- Rose, Olena (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- Kale, Sara (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
Math and Science Activities for a Rainbows Theme in Preschool
Rainbow Color Sorting Trees – Using buttons, beads, colored bears, or any colorful manipulative, this simple yet fun sorting activity is perfect for an introduction to sorting.
Rainbow Train Counting Activity – Print and assemble to create one very long train track. This dice helps children learn to count, identify colors, and learn simple graphing. It’s a perfect rainbow math activity!
Fizzy Rainbows – What is more fun than a fizzy rainbow science experiment? This color theory experiment uses just baking soda, vinegar, and food coloring. Watch what happens when the colors start to mix!
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Rainbow STEM Activities for Preschoolers
Rainbow Skittle Experiment – Grab some skittles, water, and a paper plate. Spread the skittles out in a circle shape and add water in the middle. Watch what happens to the color of the skittles! Get full instructions for this rainbow candy experiment here.
Pretend Play Weather Station – What’s the weather today? Create a weather board and invite your preschooler to watch the weather every day and add in some pretend weather.
Bowling with Lego Duplo Bricks – Build rainbow colored towers with the Lego Duplo bricks and arrange them like bowling pins. Mark a starting line on the floor with tape. Roll a small ball toward the pins. Change the bowling towers by adding or taking away bricks. Does that make a difference? This is a perfect game for fun and learning!
Get the full instructions for this rainbow bowling game here.
Social-Emotional Activities for a Rainbows Preschool Theme
Rainbow Fish Learns the Value of Sharing – Go to YouTube and read the story, The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister. The story begins with a sparkly and beautiful rainbow-scaled fish. He has trouble making friends because he is very proud and is not interested in sharing his shiny scales. He soon learns that sharing makes others feel happy and makes us feel happy in turn.
This book prompts discussion about ways to share, how to ask for things that you would like to have in a kind and gentle way, as well as, accepting no as an answer. We can’t force someone to share but we can reflect on how sharing makes everyone feel good.
Rainbow Breathing to Help Regulate Emotions – Rainbow breathing refers to taking deep breaths to help us calm, de-stress, and regulate big feelings. After printing, ask the kids to start at the white dot on one side of the rainbow. They can slowly trace along the colors of the rainbow as they take a deep breath.
Check out the directions on the blog page that can guide you through breathing through each color together.
Just Plain Fun Rainbows Activities for Preschoolers
Healthy Eat the Rainbow Activity – This eat the rainbow color chart will get your child thinking about how different foods come in different colors! This is a fun way to teach healthy eating habits and encourage new foods.
Snipped Yarn Rainbow Craft – This exciting art project process is simple. Give each child about four feet of yarn of each color of the rainbow (one color at a time) for them to snip. Then glue those lovely colors to a rainbow cut out.
Rainbow Rolling Pin Art – This is an easy and creative way to make a rainbow! Use a rolling pin and drops of paint. Spread the colors and enjoy your rainbow! See full instructions for this colorful rainbow themed art here.
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Product on sale* Learn At Home Preschool Lesson Plans BundleOriginal price was: $60.00.$22.00Current price is: $22.00.
Get Online Activities for a Rainbows Theme
Online Story – Go to YouTube and listen to the story, I am a Rainbow by Dolly Parton. After reading, return to 1:40 on the video. Reread those two pages about how it’s not always up to us how we feel, but it is up to us how we act. Discuss with your preschooler what that means… Why is it important to manage our actions?
The Rainbow Song – This rainbow song focuses on the colors of the rainbow as well as learning sign language. Your preschooler will soon learn how to sign their colors!
The Colors of the Rainbow Song – Learn all the colors of the rainbow with this fun and snappy Jack Hartmann rainbow song.
Rainbow Toys for the Calssroom
A rainbow theme isn’t complete without some rainbow add-ons! Our preschoolers love the stacking rainbow and the rainbow counting bears are a big math hit all year round. Take a look at the pictures below and click on them to see more details about each product.
- Fun Stacking Toys: Stack-a-Rainbow-Tree is in the shape of cute leaves. It’s endless fun for…
- Develop Skills: Keep balance, otherwise the tree would fall down! The kids toys encourage…
- Learning & Education Toys: The preschool toy comes in 7 bright colors, which is great for colors…
- Montessori-Inspired – Promotes hands-on learning and exploration, helping children discover size,…
- Safe & Durable – Crafted from premium, food-grade silicone, free from harmful chemicals like BPA…
- Vibrant Colors – Rainbow-colored arches captivate attention and encourage creativity and…
- 🌈 【SAFE MATERIAL】: Our rainbow bead game is made of 100% natural wood and coated with…
- 🌈 【SORTING & COLOR TOYS】: This toy will help your little boy or girl start recognizing colors…
- 🌈 【PRESCHOOL LEARNING TOYS】: Matching game can promote children’s logical thinking skills,…
- BUILD all-new skills with Spike, your colorful preschool stacking toy friend!
- 5 SKILLS in 1: colors, numbers, and shapes, plus fine motor and sensory skills!
- EXPLORE multiples ways to stack – build Spike horizontal or vertical. Spike can even be a great bath…
- Building Colorful Skills: Kids learn a rainbow of sorting, patterning, and early addition skills…
- Fine Motor Fun: Designed for little hands, this toddler toy’s fine motor tongs help kids build…
- Built-In Storage: When playtime’s done, this preschool learning toy’s 30 counters, 5 activity…
- The Science of Color: Kids discover the science behind color mixing with this 14-piece deluxe…
- Real Science Skills: As they follow along with the full-color guide’s 10 fun science experiments…
- Kid-Sized Lab Tools: Designed for little hands, this science kit’s color lenses, test tube,…
- Discover the best Easter basket stuffers for 3-year-old girls and boys, offering a fun way to build…
- Sorting Fun & Sensory Play: These sorting bears make learning exciting as toddler toys and color…
- Easy lesson planning: Suitable for kindergarten learning activities, daycares, classrooms, and…
- Acrylic Rainbow Blocks Set: Our building stacking blocks set comes with 128 colorful geometric…
- Learning Educational Kids Toy: This colorful learning and educational toy is an ideal toy to promote…
- Safe Materials: Our building block set is made of high-quality acrylic and non-toxic wood materials,…
Get Your Free Rainbow Lesson Plans Here
Want to include these rainbow activities in your lesson plans? Ready to grab your free printable lesson plans with all these rainbow theme activities for preschoolers?!
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Read this: 6 Free Printable Rainbow Activities for Preschoolers.
FAQ About a Rainbow Preschool Theme
You may have a few questions about teaching this preschool theme! Check out these frequently asked questions for how to teach your preschoolers about rainbows.
Preschoolers are naturally very curious about how rainbows work and it’s a great time to learn the colors of the rainbow and the science behind the it! We’ve included rainbow crafts, art activities, and a rainbow sensory bin for more hands on play.
“Usually all light waves blend together to form white light. But when light waves pass through raindrops, they separate. This happens because the raindrops bend light waves with different wavelengths by a different amount. The separated light waves appear as the colors of a rainbow.”
-Source: https://kids.britannica.com/kids/article/rainbow/400160
A rainbow theme goes well with weather and spring themes and of course, St. Patrick’s Day! Learning about rainbows pair well with lots of science experiments and water activities, as well.
I’m Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home-mama of five! I’m the owner and creator of Stay At Home Educator, a website about intentional teaching and purposeful learning in the early childhood years. I’ve taught a range of levels, from preschool to college and a little bit of everything in between. Right now my focus is teaching my children and running a preschool from my home. Credentials include: Bachelors in Art, Masters in Curriculum and Instruction.
