- picture of a rainbow
- strips of construction paper (red, blue, yellow, green, purple, orange)
- color
- order
- rainbow
MA Standards:
Speaking and Listening: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners during daily routines and play.
Language/L.PK.MA.1: Demonstrate use of oral language in informal everyday activities.
Language/L.PK.MA.6: Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, listening to books read aloud, activities, and play.
Head Start Outcomes:
Language Development/Receptive Language: Attends to language during conversations, songs, stories, or other learning experiences.
Language Development/Expressive Language: Uses language to express ideas and needs.
Language Development/Expressive Language: Uses increasingly complex and varied vocabulary.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Language 2: Participate actively in discussions, listen to the ideas of others, and ask and answer relevant questions.
Talk Together: Rainbow Colors
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
STEM Key Concepts: There are many different colors
ELA Focus Skills: Speaking and Listening, Vocabulary
Display a picture of a rainbow. Ask children to share what they know about rainbows. Encourage them to use color vocabulary in their descriptions.
- Point to the colors on the rainbow and have children name them in order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple.
- Give each child a mixed-up set of colored-paper strips. Say, Let’s make a rainbow. Put your color strips in a row, side-by-side, in the same order as the rainbow in the picture. Have children lay the strips in front of them as you call out each color, from red through purple. Check to make sure they are in the correct order. If they have trouble, have them reference the drawing.
- Allow children to keep the strips to take home. Children may want to number the strips in order so they can more easily duplicate laying them side-by-side at home.
Close the activity by asking, Have you ever seen a real rainbow outside? When did you see a rainbow? What colors did you see in the rainbow?
Adaptation: If young children have difficulty putting the color strips in the proper order, place a series of dots on each strip: red/one dot; orange/two dots; green/three dots, etc. Help children to count the dots and put the strips in order and then name the colors.