Bright and colorful, rainbows are a fun preschool theme for any time of year. We’ve put together lots of ideas for a rainbow preschool theme, including book ideas, social-emotional activities, plus art and/or sensory exploration, and even math and science fun. All this and more included in a free rainbow preschool lesson plans download at the end of this post.
Free Rainbow Activities for Preschoolers Including Free Preschool Lesson Plans
There’s just something about teaching with a rainbow theme. You can’t help but feel cheerful and sunny with lots of bright and colorful activities.
Plus, helping preschoolers master their colors is an essential goal before heading off to Kindergarten. We have included so many fun activity ideas to use with a rainbow theme and all developmentally appropriate for your preschool classroom or home learning.
We hope you love these preschool rainbow activities as much as we do!
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.
Important Info about these Rainbow Lesson Plans
These lesson plans for preschoolers are just one theme in a set of over 40 that will become a part of my free Learn At Home Preschool Lesson Plans.
The Learn at Home Preschool Lesson Plans are a set of free lesson plans you can use to teach your preschooler at home.
Each set of lesson plans is centered around a weekly theme and includes a minimum of 16 activities that can be done throughout the week. They are designed to be done at home with parents, but many preschool teachers are using these lesson plans, too!
Just glance over the lessons each day, gather the very few materials needed, and you’re ready to go!
All the preschool learning activities are quick and easy to set up, requiring very little (if any at all) prep and only require the most basic of household materials. This makes them especially easy for parents to implement…and this makes preschool teachers happy, too!
These activities also work wonderfully in the classroom, and if you’re a preschool teacher who is remotely teaching you can send these lesson plans to your student’s parents.
Engaging Preschool Activities for a Rainbows Theme
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.
Don’t Forget 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!
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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* Learn At Home Preschool Lesson Plans BundleProduct on sale$20.00
Playful Preschool Learning Activities for a Rainbows Theme
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!
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 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!
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!
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* Learn At Home Preschool Lesson Plans BundleProduct on sale$20.00
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 1:46 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 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 song.
Make Your Rainbow Theme Even Better!
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.
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?!
No problem. I’ve made a printable for you. Just fill out the form below and it will be sent to your inbox.
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I am an educator, book enthusiast, and a stay at home momma to two precious and long-awaited littles. My degree is in Early Childhood Education and Curriculum and Instruction and I have spent the last 15 years working with young children. I feel very fortunate to have this time to watch my babies grow and I can’t wait to share my passion for learning and reading with you!
