Easy Toddler Rainbow Art Activity

Inside: Looking for an easy toddler rainbow art activity? Recycle pieces of cardboard and add felt shapes with glue!

Here’s a super easy way to expose toddlers to the colors of the rainbow … while also build shape recognition skills!

You won’t need to break the budget for the supplies, either.

We recycled cardboard, cutting it into rainbow arches, and then cut shapes out of felt scraps.

A hands-on activity that is fun for home or the classroom!

Easy Toddler Rainbow Art Activity

Rainbows are part of our March theme, right alongside our St. Patrick’s Day theme.

We’ve had fun exploring rainbow colors at the light table, at the science table, in the sensory bin … actually, all over the classroom!

Creating a toddler rainbow art activity does not need to be complicated.

In fact, the simpler the better.

And that’s exactly what this colorful idea is all about.

Make sure to also check out our paper plate rainbow suncatchers!

Supplies:

Cardboard, cut into an arch
Felt in different colors of the rainbow, cut into shapes
Glue

Check out all these crafts that also use recycled products: Preschool Recycled Crafts

Instructions:

Cut enough arches from cardboard so that each child participating has one.

Take felt scraps (that are the colors of the rainbow) and cut them into shapes.

Prepare an area at the art table (or kitchen table) with these materials.

Assembling the Rainbow

I love activities that are child-led.

This means I can hand my toddlers the materials and pretty much step back and let them decide what to do.

I know not all teachers feel comfortable handing their toddlers a bottle of glue (I can see some of you shaking your heads now….), but I’ve found it to be a nice addition to a collage activity.

First of all, toddler hands are not that strong, so the glue takes a bit longer to come out of the bottle.

Some toddlers only have enough strength to squeeze dots on the surface.

If you are concerned about too much glue, you can remove the bottle once you feel there is an adequate amount on the cardboard and then have them press their felt shapes on top.

I start the year with enough glue bottles for each child and then refill them as needed from a gallon-sized jug. This makes it much more economical.

If you are still shaking your head, not convinced that this is the best idea for your toddlers, you can squirt a shallow amount of glue into a container and let them brush their glue on the cardboard.

Another plus to letting them squeeze the glue is that it’s super calming.

I’ve seen the busiest of toddlers sit and concentrate for quite awhile while squeezing glue.

When finished:

Let the rainbow dry and display!

Some alternative ideas:

You can tint the glue with a bit of tempera paint for extra color.

I happened to have a bottle of red-tinted glue from awhile back and some of the children preferred using it rather than the plain white glue.

You can also paint the cardboard a solid color, such as white, before inviting your toddlers to create their rainbows.

In fact, my original idea was to make this a two-step activity. The first day they would paint their cardboard arches white and the second day they would glue the felt pieces on.

But adding the felt directly to the cardboard is by far the easiest method, especially if you don’t want this to be a two day activity.