Rainbow day 2012

This year's rainbow day got rained out twice, so D and I just did my crafts at home instead. We started by reading Elmer and the Rainbow,  and Duckie's Rainbow, and watching the videos ROY G BIV by They Might be Giants, and the Rainbow song from Cat in the Hat.  I then set out newspaper on the table, pulled out the paints, and sponges, and set off.

Supplies needed (Elmer):
white paper
many colors of paint
sponges
Elmer or elephant shape
paper plate (for paint)

I started by tracing the picture of Elmer from the book onto a thin sheet of paper, cut it out, and traced it onto thicker paper so that the paint wouldn't soak through. Then, I cut some cheap sponges into little rectangles. Squirt different colors of paint onto the paper plate (for easy clean up), and place recatngle sponges into each color. I showed D how to dip them in the paint, and stamp them in the Elmer shape. Let dry. I had intended for us to cut him out and made a background scene, but D had different ideas so we just rolled with it.

My Elmer

D's Elmer. She added the tree tops, waterfall, and lion from the story.

Next up we did a sponge rainbow. I have noticed these all over pinterest, and knew we needed to try.

Supplies needed:
white paper
different colors paint
cheap sponges (I found these in a large pack for only $1 at Dollar Tree)

Start by drawing a line of paint on the sponge in the correct order of the rainbow. Remember ROY G BIV (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet). Sorry indigo, you got left out this time.  Then take the sponge, place it paint side down on the bottom left edge of the paper, and slowly wipe to the other side. It makes a wonderful rainbow. I just wanted to keep making these!!

It was so fun hearing, Oh WOW, while she wiped the sponge across!

She made sure hers went all the way across.

Mine, I went back later and made a nice arc in it.

We finished off the day with an afterschool snack with brother of a rainbow fruit skewer! Yum!!

Need more ideas? Check out what we did last year: 2011

Rainbow day!

 Sorry that I have not been around lately, but I ended up getting very sick the week before Easter.  Needless to say, we didn't get to most of the fun Easter crafts I had planned.  So yesterday was the first day I felt better, and we were suppose to have rainbow day with the moms group.  Well, everyone but one mom canceled and she had a 6 month old, so I just let the kids play at the park at that time.  So we did our own rainbow day at home after nap time.  I had the kids do a fun easy craft. And I must say that one pet peeve that I found while looking up books and crafts that talk about rainbows, is that many leave indigo out.  If I am going to teach my children the correct info, I wish they would include all the correct info in the books, and crafts out there. 

Supplies needed:
paper plate cut in half
tissue paper cut in strips in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet
crayons in those same colors
glue stick

I went ahead and drew in the lines for the kids, then have them color in the colors of the rainbow in the correct order.  You know, ROY G BIV.  Remember that from grade school?

 Next have the kids glue the strips of tissue paper (I found a large package with most of the colors at Meijer in the card section for $5), onto the back of the paper plate.  We did the colors on both ends of the rainbow.

 We did go ahead and punch a hole at the top and strung some yarn through.  The kids were very excited to hang them in the windows to make the house more colorful!

I also went ahead and made some rainbow cookies.  I saw these on this blog back around St. Pat's day and had it bookmarked.  I couldn't wait to try them!  They turned out so cute, and very yummy!

Books we read:
Minnie's Rainbow by Sheila Sweeny-Higginson
Duckie's Rainbow by Frances Barry