Rainbow Painting with Legos

Last Updated on June 12, 2025 by Sheryl Cooper

Inside: Rainbow painting with Legos is a huge hit with toddlers and preschoolers while also strengthening color recognition skills!

The rainbow theme is a favorite that I wish were longer, to be honest. There are so many wonderful ideas!

For this rainbow painting idea, I took our Lego rainbow printable and paired it with Lego Duplos for a simple and colorful painting activity.

Get ready for some stamping fun!

Rainbow Painting with Legos

I love all the rainbow ideas on the internet, but let’s face it. Most were clearly made by older children (or even adults) who got all their colors in rainbow order without overlapping.

While that looks great, it’s not reasonable for the age group I teach – 2 and 3 year olds.

I don’t focus on the order, nor do I focus on the colors staying apart. (Mixing them is part of the fun!)

Instead, I expose my students to the colors of the rainbow with lots of color sorting and matching (even during circle time) while we learn their names.

Here are some rainbow favorites from the past:

What I also love is being able to use what we already have. I was able to put our Lego Duplo bricks to good use. We love using toys at the art table!

Supplies

Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple tempera paint
Those same colors using Lego Duplo bricks (Note: I had to use bricks from our translucent set for purple and orange because our Duplo set didn’t have them.)
Paper plates cut in half and then cut into an arch
Containers for each color of paint (I used our color sorting bowls)
Optional: Rainbow brick labels from our rainbow packet

Preparation

Cut the paper plates in half and then cut a small half-circle at the bottom so it looks like an arch (see photo below).

Pour paint in containers, add labels (if using), and place the paper plates on trays.

If using the rainbow brick labels, print and cut them out. I laminated mine since I am using them for other activities, too.

Set Up

The photo above shows how I set this rainbow painting activity up at our art table.

Since this was done during free-choice centers time, I had 6 chairs (with 10 children).

The children can decide to do art at any time during centers time.

Invitation to Paint

Observe the colors that are available, reminding the children that these are the colors in the rainbow. (We had talked about rainbow colors earlier in the week before we did this activity, so the children were familiar with them.)

The children can then stamp the colors, one color at a time, on their rainbow paper. Simply dip the Duplo into the paint and then onto the paper.