Did you know that there are actually seven colors in a rainbow and they are always found in the same order? Learning the colors of the rainbow can be a great starting point to understanding the science behind rainbows. This free printable coloring activity is a great way to learn the seven colors of the rainbow and their order, but you can also use it to teach the individual colors for younger kids and the color words for beginning readers!
All you need for this activity is the Colors of the Rainbow Printable and a box of crayons! You can pull out the colors that are needed for younger kids, or let older children search through the box and find the matching crayon for each color word. Crayola makes this activity easy (and adds another element of learning!) by printing the color word on the side of each crayon.
The colors needed are: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.
As he colored, we talked about how rainbows are formed and discussed briefly the various ways we could make our own rainbows instead of waiting for a rain shower on a sunny day. He also practiced reading the color words. Indigo wasn’t a color word that he was familiar with, but he was so proud of himself when he was able to sound it out successfully.
Check out the second experiment in this post, 5 Simple Experiments with Water. Also, young kids might like and benefit from this Rainbow Song. And be sure to check back later this week for more ways to play and learn with rainbows!