Rainbows are a magical way to introduce kids to color, creativity, and fun learning through play. Whether you’re looking for a rainy day activity, a colorful craft, or a simple science experiment, rainbow-themed ideas are always a hit with little ones.
If you’re looking for inspiration for their next play date or rainy day fun, here are over 20 easy to setup rainbow activities that are full of plenty of cheerful color!
23 Fun & Easy Rainbow Activities For Kids
1.Cardboard Rainbow Cookies
Cookies, but make them crafty! This rainbow craft activity is a lot of fun and great for getting your kids creative juices flowing.
To create the rainbow cookies you will need cardboard, a circle template (mugs are great for drawing around), pens, stickers, glue and googly eyes. Kids will love cutting out, gluing and sticking their creations.
2.Rainbow Playdough Palette
This rainbow activity is a simple yet engaging way to help kids explore color recognition and fine motor skills. Start by setting out balls of play dough in different rainbow colors, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Then, provide a handful of matching colored gems or beads for each color.
Kids can press the gems into the corresponding play dough, creating a vibrant color-matching palette.
3. Rainbow Water Play
What kids don’t enjoy water play?! This one is best for outdoor messy play on those warmer days. The rainbow base in the tuff tray has been created with water and white paint, adding colored water from colored jugs to the base to create a rainbow effect.
Add a spoon and jugs with the corresponding colors for them to create their own rainbow masterpiece.
4. Rainbow Rice
Quick, easy and fun sensory activity for toddlers and beyond? Sensory rice, but make it rainbow colored!
Dye rice with food coloring to create a rainbow effect, add it to a tuff tray or smaller tray for those little fingers to sift through, scoop and play with.
5. Rainbow Rockets
Blast off into creativity with this vibrant Rainbow Rocket craft! Kids will love designing their own colorful rockets soaring through a galaxy of stars and planets.
Using watercolors or paints for the background, they can create a dreamy outer space scene, then build their rocket using white card, crayons, and rainbow-colored paper or pastels for the flame trail.
6. Rainbow Finger Printing
Finger painting crafts are ones that can be enjoyed by your littlest kids too, with a little bit of help, of course!
Draw the outline of a rainbow in colored pens for kids to follow, getting them to paint with their fingertips in the matching color.
7. Skittle Water Play!
Taste the rainbow! It’s an iconic reminder of skittles during childhood, and they still make such a great bit of water and color play today.
Add some skittles to the outer perimeter of a plate in a circle, adding in water for the effect – let your kids watch with fascination!
8. Build A Rainbow With Fruit Loops
Building a rainbow, but make it fun and taste safe with fruit loops!
Organise the fruit loops by color in a bun tin and using a similar print out to the one below, get little ones to match colors to create a rainbow.
9. Fizzy Water Play
Start by adding drops of vibrant food coloring to clear test tubes, then add baking soda to the top (this will help to create the fizzing effect later on).
When kids add a squirt of vinegar or lemon juice, the mixture fizzes to life, revealing a magical rainbow of swirling foam! This sensory science activity is perfect for exploring cause and effect, color mixing, and a bit of citrusy fun.
10. Construction Play
Construction based tuff tray setups are fab for open ended play activities. Put a rainbow twist on it by adding rainbow colored vehicles and play toys only!
11. Floristry Fun
Get your little ones to set up shop for the day. Layout a selection of flowers from the garden, or even get them to pick them too for an engaging exploration.
They’ll have so much fun snipping, organising and gifting your bouquets!
12. Ice Cream Arty Project
This idea is a sweet and simple way to get creative using recycled materials! Start by cutting old cardboard boxes into fun ice cream shapes—cones, scoops, and sprinkles included.
Then let kids go wild painting them with bright, cheerful colors. They can layer scoops, mix textures, and even add glitter or pom-poms for extra flair. It’s a great way to combine imaginative play with art, using items you likely already have at home.
13. Egg Carton Art Upcycling
This is one of my personal favorite activities that involves everyday items you may have lying around at home.
Hold onto those empty egg cartons and get kids to upcycle them with paints, pens and even stickers. A colorful activity that can be enjoyed throughout the seasons.
14. Colorful Water Play
Because one water play activity is not enough, right?
Use just water in the base of this activity, adding colored water paints and jugs into the tray for little ones to explore with.
15. Pom Pom Painting
This is a fun alternative to finger painting which can be a little less messy!
Start in the same way by drawing out the outline of a rainbow and using pegs, clip the pegs onto pom poms and get them to dip them into the paint, like a paintbrush, stamping onto the rainbow.
16. Bath Bomb Fizzing
Create a mesmerizing sensory experience with this Rainbow Fizz activity. Simply place a bath bomb in a tray of water, then add lucent cubes or translucent building blocks around it.
As the bath bomb begins to fizz and bubble, it releases vibrant colors that swirl around the cubes, creating a magical rainbow effect. Kids will love watching the colors dance and mix!
17. Tuff Tray Exploration
Open ended playtime is the best play! Get a tuff tray setup and segment by color with items such as colored sensory rice, play dough, pebbles and shells to create a rainbow effect.
So many opportunities for role play development on this one!
18. Rainbow Pasta Play
What’s serving up in the kitchen today?! Dye pasta shapes into colors of the rainbow, serve up with play colanders, scoops and bowls for pasta a la the kids!
19. Kitchen Roll Rainbows
Bleeding Rainbows is a brilliant blend of art and science that kids will love! Start by cutting strips of kitchen roll and using washable marker pens to draw rainbow colors on both ends. Then, place each end of the strip into a small container of water.
As the water is absorbed, the colors begin to travel and meet in the middle—creating a beautiful, “bleeding” rainbow effect. It’s a fantastic way to explore capillary action while enjoying a colourful, hands-on experiment.
20. Rainbow Play Dough & Buttons Art
Play dough is one of the best sensory play activities, no matter the age!
Get them to roll, smush and play whilst creating a rainbow shape, get them to decorate it with buttons, pom poms, sequins or whatever else you have to hand.
21. Rainbow Clouds
Begin by printing or drawing several cloud shapes—one larger and a few smaller—onto cardboard and cutting them out.
Kids can then paint the clouds in soft pastel shades or bold colors, before decorating them with craft gems, buttons, stickers, and a sprinkle of glitter. This creative project is perfect for encouraging imagination and fine motor skills, and the finished clouds make a lovely display for a playroom or classroom wall.
22. Tie Dye Coffee Filters
Coffee filters lying around? They make for excellent small tie dye projects! Slightly wet them, getting kids to explore with using pens on them, watching the colors spread and creating a unique coffee filter.
23. Rainbow Rolling
Take an old kitchen roll holder and wrap a piece of bubble wrap around it, securing it tightly. Then, let kids brush or dab different colored paints onto the bubble wrap.
Once it’s ready, roll it across paper to create a beautiful, bumpy rainbow print. It’s a fantastic activity for little ones to experiment with color mixing, patterns, and sensory textures.
This is one of the most simple setups, but so pleasing!
Which of these rainbow based activities is your favorite for your kids? If you have any other ideas, please share them with the community in the comments below, we’d love to hear them!
