Montessori-Inspired Rainbow Activities Using Free Printables

By Deb Chitwood from Living Montessori Now  

Rainbows are such a fun theme for St. Patrick's Day and any time in the spring! I was excited to find so many great free rainbow printables for this post. I had a hard time choosing which printables to use when there were so many fun hands-on activities that could be created. 
 

 

I shared a long list of free rainbow printables in my post today at Living Montessori Now. Here, I'm sharing some Montessori-inspired rainbow activities using free printables for preschoolers through first graders. 

You'll find many activities for preschoolers through first graders throughout the year along with presentation ideas in my previous posts at PreK + K Sharing. You'll also find ideas for using free printables to create activity trays here: How to Use Printables to Create Montessori-Inspired Activities. 

At Living Montessori Now, I have a post with resource links of Free Printables for Montessori Homeschools and Preschools.  

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links at no cost to you. 

Rainbow Floor Numbers (perfect for large-motor fun and learning on a rainy day) For this activity, I used the free Rainbow Floor Numbers from PreK Letter R Printables at Confessions of a Homeschooler.  The tray for this activity (and each activity in my post today) is a Montessori Services large plastic tray. 

This activity is VERY easy to prepare. I simply printed out and laminated the rainbow floor numbers. They could be placed on the floor where you call out numbers for your child or students to jump to. They could also be used for a traditional hopscotch game played indoors with stones or glass gems for markers. They would make a fun giant-size number line, too.  

Rainbow Letter Rr Puzzle  
This activity uses the free Rainbow Letter Rr Puzzle from Romping and Roaring R Pack (part 6) at 3 Dinosaurs. The Romping and Roaring R Pack is filled with rainbow activities. This one is a simple letter puzzle that can be printed twice for younger children as shown with a control chart and the puzzle pieces to be placed on top. 

Older children would only need the individual puzzle pieces. For any letter activities, I always emphasize the phonetic sound (/r/ for rainbow) rather than the letter name. 

 Rr is for Rainbow Magnet Activity and Chalkboard Writing  

This activity uses the Rainbow Do-a-Dot (Bingo Dauber) Printable from DLTK’s Crafts for Kids. I used the Melissa & Doug Magnetic Chalk Dry Erase Board and Power Magnets. 

You can use a baking sheet for magnet activities, although I like that this is more attractive and has the option of writing the words on the chalkboard. The child can also trace over the words on the laminated page with an erasable marker. 
 

Rainbow Ride CVC Phonics Game 

This activity is simple to prepare but is a great way to reinforce introductory reading work. It uses the free Rainbow Ride CVC Game by Sara Edgar at Teachers Pay Teachers.

Rainbow Hair Emergent Reader

For this book-making tray, I used the free Rainbow Hair Emergent Reader by Deanna Jump at Teachers Pay Teachers. The book is based on the fun poem "Rainbow Hair." 

Directions are given in the printable for using paper scraps to make rainbow hair for the cover. Or, children can create a simple reader using crayons and a stapler. I have crayons in the pictured soap box.

Here's the link to my favorite laminator ... inexpensive and great for almost any activity that needs to be laminated!

More Free Rainbow Printables and Montessori-Inspired Rainbow Activities

Go to my post at Living Montessori Now for links to rainbow freebies from around the blogosphere: Free Rainbow Printables and Montessori-Inspired Rainbow Activities.

You'll find lots of Montessori-inspired rainbow activities and ideas in these Living Montessori Now posts and Pinterest Board:

• Montessori-Inspired Rainbow Activities
• Montessori Color Mixing Activities – Rainbows of Color
• Rainbow of Water-Bead Sensory Bottles for Babies, Toddlers, and Preschoolers
• Montessori-Inspired Rainbow Activities with Spielgaben {Free Printables}
• Rainbow Unit Study Pinterest Board

If you'd like to focus on manners with children, please check out my eBook Montessori at Home or School: How to Teach Grace and Courtesy! It's written for anyone who'd like to feel comfortable teaching manners to children ages 2-12.

Happy St. Patrick's Day ... and happy soon-to-be spring! 

 

Deb Chitwood is a certified Montessori teacher with a master’s degree in Early Childhood Studies from Sheffield Hallam University in Sheffield, England. Deb taught in Montessori schools before becoming owner/director/teacher of her own Montessori school. Later, she homeschooled her two children through high school. Deb is now a Montessori writer who lives in San Diego with her husband of 39 years (and lives in the city where her kids, kids-in-law, and toddler granddaughter live). She blogs at Living Montessori Now.

Leprechauns are on the Loose in Pre-K!

Hello again, it's Ayn from little illuminations! My favorite holiday, St. Patrick's Day,  is fast approaching and I'm ready to let the fun begin and share with you here on PreK+K Sharing! 

***This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. Little Illuminations is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program.***

Art Center

In our art center, I have shamrock shapes available and cardboard shamrock shapes for tracing. They are great for making Shamrock people or leprechauns!

We also fasten a few toilet paper rolls together to dip in paint. They make cute shamrocks! 

Leprechaun Shenanigans

The leprechauns in our area are notorious troublemakers and tricksters! They come in at night (and sometimes at recess) and take out toys and leave little messes. Occasionally, they will leave us a little treat like Shamrock pudding or green milk. One even dropped his hat in his haste to get away! 

Leprechaun Traps

The kids love to make leprechaun traps to try to catch the leprechauns! They get together and make them out of anything we can find or recycle. Some are fancy and elaborate, 

and some are plain looking, 

but they are a great way for kids to work together and problem solve. My favorite part is having them explain how they have made the trap and why!

 "That leprechaun is gonna fall right in there. Then he's gonna be trapped. We put lots of green stuff in there because we know he likes green stuff!" 

"The leprechaun is going to fly into there. He will look at all the green and we will close the lid and trap him!"

"The leprechaun will go in to play with all the green stuff. There is a bridge and if the leprechaun tries to cross the bridge, he will just fall right in there."

"We put a lot of green fish in ours. After we trap the little guy, we'll push him in and close it. That's how it works!"

The Great Leprechaun Hunt

On St. Patrick's Day, we have "The Great Leprechaun Hunt". We follow clues around the school to see if we can catch him. 

We haven't been successful yet, but he's a good sport and often leaves a little treat at the last clue. Usually, a little bag of skittles with a rhyme about the Skittles being a rainbow.

One of our classes got this neat little treat! It is a canning jar layered with marshmallow clouds, Skittles or M&M's and Hershey's Pot of Gold candy or gold coin candy on the bottom!

Reading About Leprechauns

We love to read! Here is a selection of some of our favorite books about leprechauns.



Looking for more St. Patrick's Day ideas? Click this link for lots more ideas on my blog, little illuminations.

Follow me on Pinterest and check out my St. Patrick's Day board! 





May the luck o' the Irish be with you!

I'm thrilled to say I have been blogging here on PreK+K Sharing since the very beginning!  I am a Ga. Pre-K teacher, serving 4 and 5 year olds in an inclusive setting. Stop by and visit me anytime at littleilluminations.blogspot.com where I share my PreK classroom adventures or visit the little illuminations fanpage on facebook! And be sure to check out PreK+K Sharing EEE!

St. Patrick's Day Fun!

Hi!  It's Carolyn from Kindergarten: Holding  Hands and Sticking Together.  I thought this month I would share some of my favorites for St. Patrick's Day.  Even though it's a quick little holiday, the kids just love the magic that it brings.  This time of year, at least here in sub-zero Upstate NY, we could use a little magic!

 Here are the "flavors of the month."

Here is my favorite play dough recipe...

Bisquick Playdough
2 cups Bisquick
1 cup salt
2 cups water
1 Tbsp cream of tartar
1 Tbsp oil

Mix all ingredients in a microwave safe bowl.  Microwave for 3 minutes.  Scrape and stir the bowl. Microwave for another 3 minutes. If it is not quite ready,  microwave for another minute.
(I made a double batch and put it back in my microwave for one more minute, which worked perfectly.)

For the mint, I just added green food coloring and quite a bit of mint extract.  For the gold, I added LOTS of gold glitter.

Early in March, the leprechauns usually make an appearance, to make their presence known, ...and turn our milk green for snack, while the kids are at specials- SO exciting. I usually plan a day in early March to be my snack day, so those leprechauns can pull this off.

Sometimes, I have some skeptics about drinking the green milk, but all it takes is one friend to say it's delicious, and they are good to go.

Here is another project that makes me smile.  We plant  grass seed to make our Crazy Hair People.  I take everyone's picture up close and print them 3X5.  I use two sided tape to stick the pictures on to the styrofoam cups. The hair grows quickly and the kids just love it.  I have some little tiny rubber bands that the girls love to use to make pony tails.  The boys love to give themselves haircuts.

One of the children's favorites is our gold letters and gold sight words that I put out for centers.  They have so much fun reading the words or making words with the letters- or just playing with the gold!

I found this rug at... TARGET Dollar Spot! ($3 Spot, actually- but still... LOOK at it!)  It is perfect for...  oh so many things. It isn't big at all, but called a doormat, which made me laugh a little. Maybe a doormat for leprechauns. That's probably it.  I am going to use my sight word gold for some activities.  This would be a perfect "something" for the leprechauns to leave.  I like when they take over watching the behavior of the kids.  There is quite a lull between Santa and the leprechauns.  

The gold is SO easy to make, and just so much fun for the kids. 

Before...

After!

I wrote all about what I do with the gold at my post called  Literacy GOLD! 

Our class makes a We Are Lucky class book, thanks to  Sarah from A Sunny Day in First Grade.  I LOVE her products. Every one is so well made and so perfect to use in the classroom. Plus, she shares so many wonderful freebies- like this one! This book is free at her TPT store!

                                     

                                    

 I am lucky because I am hape.  (happy)

                                   

We also finished our Lucky Journals!  We worked on a couple pages each day, and the children really took their time. It is a simple way to have children write a little, and great even for morning work. If you don't include the "Leprechauns hide..." page, you could use this anytime in the spring.  Maybe you could go on a lucky clover hunt outside on a nice, spring day!

                                      

There is another page in the little journal that says, "My last name is..."    On this page, I let the kids write their last name with all different colors and fancy ways- because most of them need practice spelling and writing their last name.

  

I also made a different cover in case you prefer rainbows...

                                           

Every year, I take the children's pictures in a hat they choose, and have each of them tell me why they are lucky.  This first one made me smile. 

This one got lots of  bonus points, as you can imagine...

When St. Patrick's Day arrives, the children  love the mini leprechaun cookies that the leprechauns leave. I lovedeating the pre-made sugar cookie dough using the pre-made sugar cookie dough to make them.

Finally, this project always makes me happy for spring.  I love to have these Spring Smiles up for Open House and Grandparents' Day.  The children love to figure out this challenge.  It's amazing how easy it really is!  These smiles are from last year, and I can still remember every one of them!

I hope you found some fun new activities to use in your classroom.  Happy March! Thank you for stopping by.  I'd love you to follow me at my blog and my facebook page.