Coming up is the Rainbow Template Printable! This March activity is perfect for a St. Patrick’s Day theme or a rainbow theme in occupational therapy sessions. Whether you are working on pencil control, scissor skills, eye-hand coordination, or direction-following, this rainbow template can be used to address any skill area.
You can even use this printable to make a fruit loop rainbow craft.
free rainbow template printable
What is so enticing about rainbows? Could it be the pot of gold at the end? Or the promise of sunshine? I think rainbows don’t make you choose. You can have all of the colors at once. For a lot of people, especially those with anxiety, choosing one or two of anything is difficult. It seems so final and limiting. Not so with rainbows, you can have it all!
When I was a child we sang The Rainbow Song, “red and yellow and pink and green, orange and purple and blue. I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow too.” Is indigo the new pink? Maybe it is because we learned this in Australia. Do rainbows look different there?
Do you remember the mnemonic for the colors of the rainbow? ROY.G.BIV (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet).
However your learner decides to design their rainbow in this Rainbow Template Printable activity, there are a dozen ways to make this activity fun and functional.
Add the printable rainbow activity to our rainbow breathing exercise for more rainbow fun in therapy sessions (or the classroom or home!)
What ways can you think of to design this rainbow printable?
- Draw vertical lines in each section with the desired color, making sure the lines stay between the top and bottom borders
- Make small circles in each section, controlling the pencil to stay between the lines
- Write the first letter of the color,like RRRRRR, across each section
- If your learner is more of a beginner, simply coloring each section will help develop fine motor skills in this pencil control activity
- Copy a pattern like wavy, zigzag, or swirl lines in each section
- Add glitter! There is never a wrong time to add glitter
All of the OT Toolbox resources, including this rainbow printable template, can be modified to meet the needs of all of your learners. There are several posts related to Pencil Control and Rainbows on the OT Toolbox. Here is a post on Rainbow Activities to make lesson planning easier.
Ways to adapt and modify this rainbow template printable task:
- Laminate the page for using markers and wipes. This can be useful for reusability, as well as the enjoyment learners have using dry erase markers. Note: not all learners like reusable items, some prefer to take their work home.
- Printing this rainbow template or some of our other great pencil control worksheets on different colored paper may make it more or less challenging for your learner
- Enlarging the font may be necessary for beginning learners who need bigger space to write.
- Have students cut out each section of the rainbow and paste in order on another page – this adds a cutting and gluing element
- Make changes to the type of writing utensil, paper used, or level of difficulty
- Have students write on a slant board, lying prone on the floor with the page in front to build shoulder stability, or supine with the page taped under the table
- Project this page onto a smart board for students to come to the board and write in larger form.
- Grade the level of prompting depending on the level of the task and that of your learners
- Make this part of a larger lesson plan including gross motor, sensory, social, executive function, or other fine motor skills
- The OT Toolbox has a great Color Handwriting Kit incorporating fine motor skills, colors, and handwriting
- A classic book, (Amazon affiliate link) the Rainbow Fish, would be a great addition to this rainbow fine motor worksheet, or lesson plan. Plus it has GLITTER!
What skills are you addressing when using this rainbow template printable?
There are no wrong or right answers to this question. Your focus can vary from learner to learner, or follow a common theme.
- Pencil control
- Fine motor skills
- Pre-writing skills
The three above are the obvious, and more common skills to be measured during this task. In addition, it is possible to shift the focus and attend to different aspects of the task:
- Following directions
- Task avoidance/compliance
- Frustration tolerance
- Behavioral reactions
- Attention, focus, impulse control
- Ability to complete a task
- Level of independence
- Social skills – sharing, turn taking, waiting
there are no right or wrong answers
Again there are no right or wrong answers. The focus might be entirely on developing fine motor pencil control without regard to behaviors, social function, or executive function.
Conversely, the data you gather might not include how their fine motor skills look at all. Of course you can combine all of the above.
document, document, document
Be sure to clearly document what you are observing and measuring. Data collection is what’s required now. Use percentages, number of trials, number of verbal or physical prompts, or minutes of focus.
Gone are the days of writing, “learner completed task with min assist.” Min assist can look different to five different observers. The only clinical phrases that are somewhat accurate are “independent” and “dependent”, meaning 100% or 0%.
After all of this activity, maybe your learners need to slow down and take a breather with Rainbow Breathing Exercises. However you choose to create your treatment plan, find ways for it to be motivating and meaningful.
Free Rainbow Template
Want to add this resource to your therapy toolbox so you can help kids thrive? Enter your email into the form below to access this printable tool.
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- Note: the term, “learner” is used throughout this post for consistency, however this information is relevant for students, patients, clients, school aged kids/children of all ages and stages, or whomever could benefit from these resources. The term “they” is used instead of he/she to be inclusive.
Victoria Wood, OTR/L is a contributor to The OT Toolbox and has been providing Occupational Therapy treatment in pediatrics for more than 25 years. She has practiced in hospital settings (inpatient, outpatient, NICU, PICU), school systems, and outpatient clinics in several states. She has treated hundreds of children with various sensory processing dysfunction in the areas of behavior, gross/fine motor skills, social skills and self-care. Ms. Wood has also been a featured speaker at seminars, webinars, and school staff development training. She is the author of Seeing your Home and Community with Sensory Eyes.
