Children will roll a die, either a six-sided standard die with colored stickers placed upon it, or a printed and constructed one below. Can be played by 1 or 2 children. Graph can also be used to poll class members as to their favorite rainbow color. Ask for an initial predictions. Have child(ren) complete until they reach 10 of one color, then ask questions.

Skills: color recognition, fine motor, rote counting, 1 to 1 correspondence, graphing, comparison, logic, reasoning, quantification

 Teaches the major sequencing/patterning conventions AB, ABC, AABB, ABBA, etc... I've included a label to make this into a file folder activity, or it can be cut into strip cards.

Working on theme vocabulary and concepts. Words provide conventions of silent "e," and double vowels.  The sentences provide a good opportunity to review/introduce punctuation. These are posted and we go over them in the morning together. I point to the card and we all say the word then spell it together. Then we all say the sentences together as I point to each word. Throughout the day I'll throw out questions, such as "Who knows how to spell (word wall word)?" and they'll race to the wall and spell it. Or, I'll ask, "I do WHAT?" and they'll race to tell me a sentence, usually from memory, and I'll direct them to the sentence wall and have them "read" it, pointing to the words to reinforce. Later in the week I'll up the game to ask, "How do you spell ..." a sentence wall words that they usually have to find/recognize, then spell. I try to be sensitive to diversity. There are many kinds of love, and not every child has a mother, father, grandparent or a family belief in a higher power. Marriage, as well, is no longer the profound statement of love that it once was considered. The image I found in my clipart that I used for "love" I feel is rather generic. It could be a woman and man, two women, a man or woman and a child, etc. This is a good time to discuss that all families are different, and that there are so many forms of love.

Color Chairs

Musical chairs with each chair having a different color of the rainbow. After each round, can draw a color from a bag to remove, for traditional play. Or, for a more educational spin, have each child name the color s/he landed upon, spell it, name something that color, and/or the number order of it within the rainbow, and just keep playing until children begin to tire of the game.

Making Rainbows

Place a small mirror in a glass of water and tilt it against the side of the glass. Then stand the glass in direct sunlight so that the mirror reflects a rainbow on a wall. Name the rainbow colors with the children (red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.). Explain that sunlight contains all these colors mixed together, but when it hits the water (or raindrops in the sky) all the colors are separated.

Color Sorting

Teacher will place color word cards and children will gather classroom items and place in a rainbow pattern. Teacher can direct color selection, children can roll for it with the color die, or children can select. Before child places item, they have to spell the color word for their item.

Spinning Rainbow

Cut a circle out of heavy paper. Divide the disk into 6 equal sections. Color each section a different color of the rainbow. Poke the circle onto the point of a sharpened pencil. Show the circle to the children. Ask them to predict what they will see when you spin the circle. When the circle is spun, instead of seeing 6 colors, you will see white ( or close to white, depending on the purity of the colors and how equal the sections are). This is the reverse of what happens when a rainbow is made from white light separated into the six colors seen. This experiment takes those 6 colors and whirls them together to make white.

Rainbow Magic

Pour the milk in the bottom of the dish enough to cover the bottom. Add a few drops of food coloring randomly. Put a drop of Dawn on each color or on the side of the dish near each color. Watch! Although you cannot see it, milk contains fat that do not mix with the watery food coloring. Whenever the dishwashing liquid touches the milk, it breaks up the fat which then spreads out. This allows the food color and milk to mix. It will continue on for quite a while. The children can leave and come back and it still will be in motion. Be sure that you use blue Dawn dish detergent. The children will find this amazing & some children will watch for a long time.

Rainbow in a Baggie

1 cup cornstarch
1/3 cup sugar
4 cups water
ziplock bags
Mix ingredients together in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil stirring constantly. Product should look a little like vaseline. Allow to cool. Fill baggies 1/3 full with product. Add food coloring (red, yellow, blue) to product in the baggie. Zip up and allow children to squish the bag. Soon a rainbow full of colors will be present in their bags. Caution: Don't allow children to hit bags with fist hard, the baggies will open up or holes will be made in the bag

Over the Rainbow Streamer Dancing

Children will use the Rainbow Streamers they made for craft and dance with them to to “Over the Rainbow” from the Wizard of Oz, and to the daily song “Rainbow.” Encourage broad sweeping movements to get the streamers really flowing.

• Identify color order of a rainbow, OR know ROYGBIV
• Know that rainbows come after it rains
• Know that rainbows are created with rain and sunlight
• Identify primary and secondary colors
• Know that pink is not a color of the rainbow