It was Saint Patrick’s week and I wanted to do a rainbow storytime, but I didn’t want to only read books about rainbows, so I did books with colors and songs and crafts about rainbows.
Books We Read
The Book With No Pictures by B.J. Novak (preschool)
Rhyming Dust Bunnies by Jan Thomas (toddler and preschool)
Blue Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton (baby and toddler)
Songs We Sang
Rainbow Song
Oh, I like red, it’s the color of an apple
Orange, it’s the color of an orange
Yellow, it’s the color a lemon and our wonderful sun, sun, sun
Green, it’s the color of the trees and lots of things that grow
And then, there’s blue for the sky
And purple, that’s a color that’s fun, fun, fun
And when we put those colors side by side
Now, what do you think we’ve done
We’ve made a rainbow
We’ve made a rainbow
We’ve made a rainbow
And it’s a really beautiful one, one, one
Oh, I like red, it’s the color of an apple
Orange, it’s the color of an orange
Yellow, it’s the color a lemon and our wonderful sun, sun, sun
Green, it’s the color of the trees and lots of things that grow
And then, there’s blue for the sky
And purple, that’s a color that’s fun, fun, fun
And when we put those colors side by side
Now, what do you think we’ve done
We’ve made a rainbow
We’ve made a rainbow
We’ve made a rainbow
And it’s a really beautiful one
Credit: Barney
Wave Your Scarf/Shake your Shaker
Wave your scarf up and down, up and down, up and down
Wave your scarf up and down
Wave your scarf
Can repeat with side to side, all around, out of sight, etc. Also can do the song with shake your shaker if you have egg shakers- the toddlers in my group prefer these.
Credit: Jbrary
We Wave Our Scarves
We wave our scarves together
We wave our scarves together
We wave our scarves together because it’s fun to do.
Wave them up high
Wave them down low
Wave them in the middle
Because it’s fun to do.
Verses: We throw our scarves together/ We shake our eggs together
Credit: Jbrary
Early Literacy Tip
Rhyming is a very important way to introduce words to children and get them ready to read. It teaches them similar sounds in words and gives children a sense of phonological awareness: understanding the sounds you are hearing.
Flannel Board
I love this flannel board. I handed out the fruits and the pieces of the rainbow to kids in attendance that wanted them and they brought them up as we added the fruit to the stew.
Craft
I cut up a bunch of scrap paper I had into small rectangles of no particular size and separated them into bags by color. I told the kids they could make a rainbow, or use the rainbow colors to make any kind of art they wanted. A lot of them made mosaics which turned out super cool and they had a lot of fun.
How It Went
This was such a successful storytime! I pulled out the parachute after and the kids screamed with delight. That is always a crowd pleaser.
The only thing I would change is maybe adding one book about rainbows – I waited too long to put one on hold and they were ALL checked out. The Book With No Pictures was super fun and the kids laughed so hard. I think I could use this book for an older group as well.