Storytime - Colors of the Rainbow

This is by far my favorite storytime theme to do!

Books

• Duckie’s Rainbow by Frances Barry
• Toddler
• A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni
• Toddler
• Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lionni
• Preschool
• Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh
• Preschool

Songs/Rhymes

Color Ducks (flannel board)

Sung to: “Mary Wore a Red Dress”

If you have a red duck, red duck,

Red duck,

If you have a red duck, bring it to me now.

--Abby the Librarian

*I gave each child a duck, then sang the song. When I held up a color, each child with the same color brought it to me and placed it in my basket.

**Abby's version was about cows at the farm. 

Red, Yellow, Green, and Blue

Sung to: Head and Shoulders

Red, yellow, green, and blue,

Green and blue.

Red, yellow, green, and blue,

Green and blue.

Orange, purple, brown, and black.

Red, yellow, green, and blue,

Green and blue.

--Unknown.

*We sang the song once through, then took out the color red and replaced it with a red rectangle. At the rectangles, we clapped instead of singing the color.

**I don't have a source for this song, so if you know where it comes from, share the information!

Activities

Build a Rainbow

I asked the children to help me build a rainbow by finding what piece came next in order of size. The pattern is from Storytime Magic by Kathy MacMillan and Christine Kirker.

Mixing Colors Experiment

After reading Mouse Paint, I demonstrated how to mix colors by pouring water into clear cups and dropping in food coloring. The preschoolers guessed what color the water would turn when the two cups were mixed. One mom even called afterwards to say that her son had so much fun watching the experiment that he wanted to recreate it at home!

Crafts

Toddler - Build a Rainbow

Materials: Construction paper semi-circles in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple, crayons, glue, and tape. I used the Storytime Magic template (see above). The toddlers glued their rainbows together in color order. 

Preschool - Mixing Colors

Mixing Colors. Materials: dyed macaroni noodles, color mixing print out, glue, tape, crayons, and scissors. The preschoolers matched the correct color of macaroni to the corresponding box on the paper. You can find the sheet I made for this here.