Open Ended Rainbow Art

Inside: This open ended rainbow art is all about the process using the colors of the rainbow and a scraper. Your children will want to do this over and over!

I’ve said it before and I will say it again: Open ended art is a must for children, especially young children who care more about the process rather than the outcome.

As I was straightening our preschool storage room, I found a box of paint/dough scrapers that was hidden behind larger boxes.

I happened to be planning the rainbow theme and realized these scrapers could be a great tool to pull the colors across a piece of paper.

What I didn’t anticipate was how popular this activity would be with my two and three year olds.

Many of the children made multiple rainbow paintings!

Open Ended Rainbow Art

Supplies

• Dough/Paint scrapers (We used these and these. You certainly don’t need both kinds – we just happened to have them on hand.)
• Red, yellow and blue tempera paint
• White paper (we used 11 x 17)

Set Up

If you purchase your paint in gallon containers, you will probably want to transfer some into squeeze bottles, as you will be squeezing paint onto the paper.

I like to do this activity on trays. Place a sheet of paper on top of each tray along with a scraper and have the bottles of paint close by.

The Activity

Take time to show the children how to hold the scraper, as it most likely won’t feel natural to them at first.

In fact, it might take them awhile to get the hang of it, but give them that time.

Create a vertical row of paint (one dollop of each color) on the left side of the paper.

Show them how to place their scraper to the left of the paint and drag it towards the right.

This is an excellent way to strengthen pre-reading and pre-writing fine motor skills by learning to move from left to right, starting at the top and moving down.

And while you will tell them to move the scraper from left to right, younger children just might pull the scraper in different directions, too.

I didn’t correct this as I wanted them to enjoy the experience of moving the paint around, blending the colors.

When finished, invite the children to notice the colors. Can they find all the colors of the rainbow?

We let ours dry thoroughly and then I hung them on the classroom wall. What I love about process art is that no two look alike!