Rainbow themed fun activities for families in lockdown

Im sure lots of you will have seen the posts on social media asking families to paint/draw/create a rainbow for their windows to spread some cheer during lockdown. So I thought I would do a quick blog post with some other rainbow fun activities suitable for a variety of ages!

Our children are age 11 and 3 so with such a big age gap it can sometimes be tricky to find things they are both able to do. I have road tested these with my kids so they should be suitable for toddlers through to high school age kids.

 

1. Find the colours of the rainbow in nature!

On our daily allowed walk I asked the boys to find all of the colours of the rainbow but only on things that are from nature so no cheating by using cars or front doors! We spotted a ladybird and many different plants and flowers on our walk to make up our rainbow!

2. Create a rainbow using items found in your home.

This is a fun scavenger hunt type activity that all ages can join in! Find as many items of each colour and put them together to create a mixed media rainbow! We split the boys and worked as two teams of two to find specific colours then worked together to make ours it was lots of fun!

3. Make a rainbow snack!

This is fun and healthy too! Use fruits and vegetables to create your very own rainbow snack! Great for all ages and makes snack time more fun and colourful!

My kids loved this activity especially Ollie who we refer to as our little fruit bat!

4. Make rainbow spaghetti for messy sensory play fun!

Rainbow spaghetti is something I first made years ago when I was a nursery nurse and the toddlers loved it! Anything sensory was always a big hit with the babies too! To make rainbow spaghetti just cook up a pack of spaghetti then toss the cooked, drained pasta in a  little oil (2 tablespoons should be plenty) and divide into 5 bowls. Add liquid food colouring to each bowl and stir through. You can then mix the colours together for your rainbow spaghetti! To extend the play you can give children chopsticks or forks to try and pick up the spaghetti and work those fine motor skills. Or add in plastic toys as treasure to dig in and find like dinosaurs or animal figures! This is a great activity to take outdoors so you don’t have to worry about the mess. pop the spaghetti into a large container such as a washing up bowl or garden tub or water tray! A baby bath also works and babies love to stand in the spaghetti to squish between toes!

5. make rainbow rocks!

This is a super easy activity that all ages can enjoy and leads to wonderful open ended imaginative play. All you need are some nice smooth stones (if you have a beach walkable to your home now is a great time to head out for your daily walk and collect some!) I recommend using a mix of sizes and aiming to have enough for at least 3 per colour. Wash and dry your stones then paint with acrylic paints. Once dried you can arrange them into a rainbow shape. Great to practice counting, talk about colours, sizes eg can you arrange them from smallest to biggest? Or stack them with the biggest at the bottom and the smallest at the top?! If you want the stones to be safe to use long term you can seal the paint with acrylic sealant available on amazon and from your local arts/craft supplies shop.

 

I hope you enjoy, Id love to see some photos of what you create!

If you enjoyed this blog and would like more ideas for keeping little ones entertained please join our new Facebook group!

Rachael x