Fun Preschool Rainbow Craft that Builds Fine Motor Skills

Last Updated on March 5, 2024 by Sheryl Cooper

Inside: Let’s build a rainbow! This preschool rainbow craft is 3-dimensional and fun to build. Download the free printable to sort the beads!

I love building multiple skills with one activity. This fine motor rainbow craft for preschoolers does just that.

We have not only fine motor building taking place, but also color recognition AND math!

Recently I shared our rainbow color sorting sensory bin.

Our preschoolers were so excited to learn the order of the colors that I put together a 3-dimensional rainbow craft.

We then used this as a prop while reading the book “Planting a Rainbow“.

Fun Preschool Rainbow Craft that Builds Fine Motor Skills

What we used:

Rainbow printable (scroll down for the link to download)
Beads in rainbow colors
Pipe cleaners in rainbow colors
Small clear or white plastic cups
Cotton balls
White glue

Putting it together:

I sorted the beads and placed them in matching bowls. (Not a requirement. I just happened to have some on hand.) I made 4 copies of the rainbow sheet and put them in clear plastic pockets. (Can I just say how much I love having these pockets? No laminator needed and I can reuse them with other activities!)

Fine Motor Rainbow Craft for Preschoolers

I first invited the preschoolers to place one bead on the matching color on the printable. (1:1 correspondence is another important math skill for preschoolers!)

The beads were then threaded in rainbow order onto the pipe cleaner. (I bent the end of one side of the pipe cleaner to keep the beads from falling off.)

Once those were finished, I got the white cups ready. Each rainbow needs 2 cups, 1 for each end.

I poked a hole in the bottom of each cup and pushed the ends of the pipe cleaners into them and then twisted the ends inside the cup so they wouldn’t pull through.

The next step was brushing the glue on the cups.

And then sticking the cotton balls on the glue for clouds.

When they were dry, we used them during circle time while reading Planting a Rainbow. As we came to each color in the book, we touched that color bead on our rainbow.