Today we were all about rainbows! My toddler “Rainbow” busy box includes a cut-and-paste craft, color sorts, rainbow books, and other fun items related to rainbows!
My main activity for my toddler was a simple cut-and-paste rainbow color sort craft using paint chip squares and images in all colors of the rainbow. This is such a simple activity, but my daughter loved that she had “made a rainbow” all by herself.
Cut-and-Paste Paint Chip Rainbow
To begin with, I had a pile of paint chip squares, so I used those to make an accordion book, held together simply with tape.
Then, I found some clipart of items of a variety of colors. You can have a search through a shop catalog or magazine for items of a variety of colors.
My girl enjoyed cutting out the items and gluing them on the correct page. This was a perfect small motor skills practice activity. There was no pressure to cut “on the line.”
Picking up the paper and sorting it on to the correct square was also a perfect challenge for a young preschooler or older toddler. It takes good finger control in order to pinch paper. Glue is always fun.
The whole activity was just a great chance to try an activity by herself, from cutting to glue. And then she had a beautiful rainbow “accordion” book at the end of it!
Color Puff Ball Sort
Colored puff balls are such a fun soft manipulative for the little ones to play with. I love that, even if they are thrown, there is no harm done. Because they are so light, they don’t go far either.
For this activity, I cut down some toilet paper tubes to three different heights: from 1 into to full sized. then I wrapped each tube in construction paper and labeled them with number stickers.
You could also use thicker colorful paper and do away with the toilet paper tubes all together!
Then, I include the correct number of puff balls in the busy box to allow for one to fit in the smallest, two in the next, 3 in the next, etc. the goal is for the correct number of puff balls to correlate to the color of the tube.
The first time we played with this, my toddler did not understand. The next time it came out, she figured it out and enjoyed it!
More Ideas for a Rainbow-Themed Busy Box
Here are the other activities that fit in her rainbow busy box. The items below link to Amazon, for which I am an affiliate.
- Matching colored eggs
- Colorful scarves for dancing and playing
- Coloring books and a rainbow of crayons
- Favorite rainbow picture books, such as a Rainbow of My Own by Don Freeman, How the Crayons Saved the Rainbow by Monica Sweeney, The World Made a Rainbow by Michelle Robinson (related to the COVID rainbows project!), and A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni.
See more rainbow and color products in my store!
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