These rainbow themed math activities are a fun way for young children to practice a ton of preschool math skills! Preschoolers get a full dose of color recognition and sorting, and of course, counting, while also working on their fine motor skills.
FREE Rainbow Math Activities for Preschoolers
With St. Patrick’s Day coming up soon, we’ve been learning about rainbows in preschool.
This is a fun rainbow themed math activity I put together for my preschoolers. It’s one of those activities that cover a lot of content in a lot of areas!
That’s a win-win!
Here are just a few things your preschooler will work on with this fun rainbow activity:
- color recognition
- color matching
- number identification
- one-to-one correspondence
- counting
- sorting
- categorizing
- comparing
- fine motor skills
And that doesn’t even begin to touch on the social skills preschoolers gain from games like this one.
But here’s the thing.
Your preschooler won’t even know they are “working” on all those skills because they will be so preoccupied with the game itself.
So, not to quote the show “The Office”, but that is what we call a win-win-win!
And it doesn’t hurt that this rainbow printable is good for any time of the year but especially appropriate to add to your St. Patrick’s Day themed preschool centers.
You see, lesson planning for preschool, just like any other age or grade level, requires teachers to develop plans that are comprehensive and full of robust and rich learning activities. And in preschool, we have so many domains of learning to cover if we want to “develop the whole child”.
So activities like this one that covers so many skills are a must! And this printable will help toddlers learn colors and basic counting, too!
FAQ About Teaching Math to Toddlers and Preschoolers
Preschoolers learn to count through practice. That practice can happen naturally through everyday activities and through playing. Hands on counting activities for preschoolers are a must for additional practice, as well as sensory counting activities and even some worksheets, like counting bear worksheets that are so popular.
One-to-one correspondence is the understanding that each item is counted only once and one at a time. For example, when counting a set of counting bears
Practice should include lots of modeling by the teacher, and practicing small quantities first.
Preschool math is divided into five disciplines. Those disciplines are: number sense, algebra, geometry, measurement, and data analysis and probability. Preschool math instruction should include math activities in all five disciplines.
Rainbow Math Games for Preschoolers
This activity is quick to prepare and set up. Nice and simple, which is one thing that makes it awesome for a quiet-time bin or a busy bag. Once your preschooler knows what to do, they can easily work independently.
Materials
- Free rainbow printable (found at the end of this post)
- Pom poms in rainbow colors
- Jumbo tweezers
The Set-Up
Simply print out the rainbow counting printable in color on heavy card stock and laminate for added durability. Cut apart and set face down in a pile with a tub of pom poms in rainbow colors next to it. Invite your child to join you in doing some rainbow themed math activities.
How to Play the Rainbow Theme Math Game
Invite a player to go first. Draw a card from the pile. Identify the numeral and color. Then, use the jumbo tweezers to collect the same amount of Pom poms in the corresponding color.
Then the play goes to the next person and continues around until all the cards have been drawn.
There are a lot of rainbow themed math activities available for preschoolers. This one encourages fine motor development as the preschoolers use the tongs or tweezers. But even handling the cards required fine motor skills.
A toddler may not want to use the tweezers, so allow him to use his hands. Handling the pom poms with his fingers is still good fine motor work.
-
Easter Activity Pack$5.00 -
St. Patrick’s Day Activity Pack$5.00
This rainbow game is designed to be played in pairs, but the cards can also be used as a quiet time activity or tray activity. Although, since there are an even number of cards in each color and the same numbers on each, your preschooler will end up with the same amount in each color.
This is not really a problem since your preschooler will still get loads of counting practice in as well as all that fine motor work!
We used the printable both ways, but honestly, I love seeing my preschoolers work together while playing a game. There is something very special at witnessing cooperation and communication between two preschoolers as they play together.
5 More Rainbow Themed Math Activities Using this Printable
Here are even more ways to use this math printable with your preschoolers:
- Play as directed and then have each player graph their results.
- Arrange the results into a rainbow. Compare the amount of each color.
- If using tweezers is too hard for toddlers, allow them to use their fingers. It will help develop their pincer grasp.
- Play Add Some Subtract Some. Play the game as directed above but alternate adding pom-poms to your pile and subtracting them by returning them to the main pile.
- Make this into a whole group game by flashing the card to the class and then all the preschoolers can practice counting every card.
Don’t forget to grab your free rainbow theme counting activity below!
-
Earth Day Activity Pack$5.00 -
Easter Activity Pack$5.00
Grab Your FREE Rainbow Math Game Here
Just click the image below to get your free copy of our math game.
Then, keep reading for even more free rainbow printables and some other math activities, too!
WANT MORE COLOR ACTIVITIES FOR PRESCHOOLERS?
Then you’ve got to see these! Your free printable is just below this!
More FREE Rainbow Printables for Preschoolers
Just click the images to be taken to the activity!
Looking for More Printable Math Activities?
-
* Daily Lessons in Counting Preschool Math Unit BundleProduct on sale$39.00 -
Daily Lessons in Sorting Preschool Math Unit$16.00 -
Daily Lessons in Shapes Preschool Math Unit$16.00 -
Daily Lessons in Measurement Preschool Math Unit$16.00 -
Daily Lessons in Positions & Patterns Preschool Math Unit$16.00 -
Daily Lessons in Addition & Subtraction Preschool Math Unit$16.00 -
Daily Lessons in Graphing Preschool Math Unit$16.00
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.
[…] Rainbow Math Activities […]