Before we know it, March will be here and all of the rainbow crafts and activities will be dominating social media. Rainbow craft ideas are a fun kids craft with a rainbow theme. So, let’s begin a blog post that will give you some fun rainbow craft ideas now that will address multiple skill areas as well as celebrate the season and the holiday! Use these craft ideas along with our rainbow activities for themed fun.
Just know that this post of rainbow crafts cannot only be used for the season and the holiday but if you have a weather theme that you need some unique ideas for, then this round-up will help!
Rainbow Crafts
Here in this post, you will find a colorful collection of paper, cardboard, and food items that will help you jazz up your rainbow craft approach. Not only do these craft activities incorporate skill development, but they also provide an end product that can be displayed or sent home with children and families to enjoy.
Some can even result in an end product that can be enjoyed right away – like some rainbow food crafts! Delicious!
Now, read on and take a look at some colorful crafts that children of many ages can participate in making either during therapy, in the classroom, or at home. Whether you are looking for rainbow crafts for toddlers, preschoolers, or older children, you’ll find colorful ideas for all ages.
We’ve selected ideas that support development of several areas through the crafting process. Areas that are supported with these rainbow craft ideas include:
- Fine motor skills
- Hand strength (pinch, grasp, arch development)
- Hand-eye coordination
- Scissor skills
- Tactile challenges
To get started with crafting DIY rainbow craft projects, gather a variety of different materials and crafting supplies. These materials are great for making rainbows…
- Colorful tissue paper
- Markers (great for coloring, making DIY colored salt, DIY watercolors, etc.)
- Glue
- Scissors
- Paper plates
- Construction paper in a variety of colors
- Food coloring
- Ribbons
- Marshmallows (if you want to make an edible rainbow)
Let’s get started with the easy rainbow crafts!
Rainbow Crafts for Occupational Therapy
While we state that these rainbow activities are designed for occupational therapy, they are actually a simple and fun way for kids of all ages to build skills in the areas mentioned above.
Paper Rainbows-
A cut and paste rainbow craft is easy to set up and make while building scissor skills. Or, ask young learners to tear bits of paper or tissue paper. Use a few materials:
- Construction paper or tissue paper cut into strips
- Scissors
- Glue
Show the child how to snip the paper strips into small squares. They can also just tear off a small piece. Tearing paper is a great tool for developing fine motor skills.
A torn paper rainbow craft that can be performed with scissor cutting or paper tearing as the main hand actions needed to create it. It’s a craft that can be completed by younger kiddos or by slightly older kiddos as the skills needed can be varied depending on the approach.
A more advanced version of a paper rainbow craft is using colored construction paper with different sized curves. Children can cut the curves from the edge of the pieces of paper and then layer the curved pieces on top of one another. This activity works on cutting skills as children cut different sizes of half-circle shapes. It provides the opportunity for children to think about the sizing and positioning of the shapes by stacking them according to size – largest to smallest – to create the rainbow.
Paper Plate Rainbow-
To mae a colorful paper plate rainbow, you need just a few items:
- Paper plate cut in half
- Cotton balls
- Construction paper in each color of the rainbow
- Glue
To make a paper plate rainbow:
- Cut a paper plate in half.
- Glue cotton balls to the paper plate.
- Cut a one inch strip of paper from each color of construction paper.
- Add glue to one end of each strip of paper.
- Glue the paper strips in rainbow order starting at the left side of the straight edge of the paper plate.
This paper plate rainbow craft can be completed by younger kiddos and you can be creative in having kiddos make the rainbow-colored ‘beams’ by having them tear strips of paper versus cutting them. It is a little more involved to tear, so if kiddos are unable to tear then just simply cut.
How about a new spin on the rainbow paper craft by creating a Rainbow Happiness Craft? This is a combination of two paper crafts mentioned above, but the child will write on the rainbow beams things like happy thoughts and positive remarks. Their statements could be about what they like to do that makes them happy or could be recalling some happy memories.
Rainbow Templates-
Using a printable rainbow is an easy way to work on the order of the rainbow by putting items into rainbow order. Use the templates to make a Fruit Loop Rainbow craft, too!
In The OT Toolbox membership, we have a Rainbow template for Q-Tip painting. It’s a fun printable that has children use q-tips dipped into rainbow paint colors to fill in the dots on the rainbow pattern. This is the perfect craft to encourage a pincer grasp or tripod grasp and to provide an opportunity to target eye-hand coordination for q-tip placement within the dots.
We have a free Rainbow Template Printable here that you can just print and color to make it a simple craft for just about any age or if you are working on pencil control, scissor skills, eye-hand coordination, or direction following, this template can address all of those skill areas too!
We know there are many benefits to making paper chains with kids. A Rainbow Paper Chain Craft includes the creation of paper chains that are linked together to create the beams of a rainbow cloud. The strips can already be cut or you can have the child cut the strips themselves, but either way, it addresses fine motor skills while creating and linking the paper chain links so pasting skills are involved too!
Weave a Rainbow-
Here is a unique approach to a paper plate rainbow that involves Rainbow Weaving which is simply the use of a paper plate and colored pipe cleaners to create the rainbow pattern, but you’ll also need a crayon to color the plate and some Styrofoam pieces or cotton balls to create the cloud formation. This is probably a craft for some older kiddos due to the fine motor skill and sequencing skills needed to weave the pipe cleaners. Weaving activities are great for building many skills so this is a great tool for occupational therapy.
Rainbow Sun Catcher-
Suncatcher crafts are another great strategy for developing skills. This craft is definitely a favorite, it’s called the Rainbow Pony Bead Prism Suncatcher which is created by stringing transparent pony beads onto a fishing line that is attached to a plastic sewing needle. So, in a way, it makes the craft activity kind of like a functional task too – sewing.
This Yarn Wrapped Rainbow Craft are OT favorites as they involve the use of multiple hand skills to create, but the end product has its own unique look that doesn’t make it good or bad or right or wrong, just a rainbow. If needed, you can snip along the edges of the cardboard rainbow and it will provide a latching point for yarn as it is wrapped.
Toilet Paper Tube Rainbow-
Now, this is another unique rainbow craft called Rainbow Binoculars where you recycle either toilet paper or paper towel cardboard rolls and wrap them with strips of rainbow-colored paper to create the binoculars. Take a look at this unique craft by clicking on the link and you’ll see what I mean. Just know that after these are created, you can then use them to play a fun I Spy game around the room.
Another fun activity is our rainbow cardboard tube. Use a paper towel roll or a toilet paper tube to make a mini rainbow, perfect for small world pretend play or just painting a rainbow!
Rainbow Bracelet crafts-
This is a wearable Rainbow Bracelet Craft where children need to be able to string pony beads onto pipe cleaners and then twist them together to create a colorful wearable product! This one is super for addressing fine motor and bilateral coordination skills.
Never tried this one before, but it looks interesting as it’s a food product that is cut and then strung onto a plastic lace to create a Rainbow Necklace. I’m guessing the colorful Twizzler licorice sticks will make it a real motivator for children.
This one is a Rainbow Mobile Craft that is a little more involved and time-consuming, but the result is a super colorful and creative use of pasta pieces turned into a rainbow of color. This craft can be expanded into days-long crafting if you include the dying of pasta pieces and then the use of pasta to string and create the mobile. With a tying opportunity, it can be used with older kiddos too. Fun!
Are you working on food exploration or tolerance with younger kiddos or maybe just kitchen tool use with older kiddos? This craft idea addresses both and it’s YUMMY! It’s a Rainbow Fruit Pizza! The fruit included is sliced strawberries, sliced kiwi, blueberries, blackberries, and mandarin oranges. Or if you don’t want to try fruit, how about a Rainbow Snack?
We hope you have enjoyed all the crafts included in this rainbow round-up of ideas and we hope that you have found some unique and never-before-tried crafts that will become some of your colorful favorites!
Regina Parsons-Allen is a school-based certified occupational therapy assistant. She has a pediatrics practice area of emphasis from the NBCOT. She graduated from the OTA program at Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute in Hudson, North Carolina with an A.A.S degree in occupational therapy assistant. She has been practicing occupational therapy in the same school district for 20 years. She loves her children, husband, OT, working with children and teaching Sunday school. She is passionate about engaging, empowering, and enabling children to reach their maximum potential in ALL of their occupations as well assuring them that God loves them!
Rainbow Handwriting Kit– This resource pack includes handwriting sheets, write the room cards, color worksheets, visual motor activities, and so much more. The handwriting kit includes:
- Write the Room, Color Names: Lowercase Letters
- Write the Room, Color Names: Uppercase Letters
- Write the Room, Color Names: Cursive Writing
- Copy/Draw/Color/Cut Color Worksheets
- Colors Roll & Write Page
- Color Names Letter Size Puzzle Pages
- Flip and Fill A-Z Letter Pages
- Colors Pre-Writing Lines Pencil Control Mazes
- This handwriting kit now includes a bonus pack of pencil control worksheets, 1-10 fine motor clip cards, visual discrimination maze for directionality, handwriting sheets, and working memory/direction following sheet! Valued at $5, this bonus kit triples the goal areas you can work on in each therapy session or home program.
