Actually they are Styrofoam plates. This is a fun little rainbow craft which will be fun for toddlers and preschoolers while teaching them colors and counting.

First, I drew 2 rainbows on a Styrofoam plate ( use 2 semi circles cut out from the plate)

Then I cut out 7 strips along the curves of the drawn rainbow. Note: Try to be as uniform as possible  with the paper strips so it doesn’t get too complicated when you start attaching them to the play dough.

Once I got the 7 strips the kids started painting the strips. We used acrylic paint.
Holding on to the paper plate strip with a finger and painting with the other was a great fine motor exercise for both the kids (toddler and pre school age) While the preschooler knew her rainbow colors it was a work in progress for my toddler girl.

We called out the colors out loud while painting which was great for color recognition and counted them.

Here are our rainbow strips fully colored.

We set them out to dry and came back to it the next day ( you could go at it once the paint dries) As mentioned earlier, rainbow crafts or any crafts like these are a great way to begin talking about new concepts and events and in this case this activity gave us a chance to talk about St. Patrick’s day, rainbows and leprechauns.

Attaching the rainbow to play dough would be best suited for pre school age and above.

We rolled out some play dough in a cylindrical shape and made 2 mini walls on a blue construction paper. Then we started “sticking” the Styrofoam rainbow strips into the play dough on each side. It is easier when you first make small holes in the play dough and press the end of the Styrofoam rainbow strip into the play dough and cover it up with more play dough if need be.

This will be a fun little exercise if you do one and end and the child does another. Good for collaborative work.

Once we had all our colored strips in order, my pre schooler stuck some cotton wool for the clouds. For the treasure at the other end of the rainbow we cut up some golden paper and spread them out in a small salsa container painted black with acrylics.

There you have it, our plate rainbow craft. The toddler painted rainbow was stuck on a white construction paper.

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