Collaborative Rainbow Project

Here is another "late" post of something we worked on during the week of St. Patrick's Day.  Again, I've decided to post it because this concept could easily be adapted for use at any time of the year. 

I took a large piece of poster board and sketched a rainbow onto it.  Then I set up a little "cutting" station where the children could choose one strip of one color and cut it into small pieces.  Then, they glued the cut pieces onto the rainbow in the appropriate arch.

 

Here is the cutting station:  the blue basket is there to catch the small pieces of paper after they are cut.

 

The (very crudely drawn) rainbow...........

 

........close-up of the arches with color names written in.

 

Here is what the rainbow looked like when we first started it.

 

And here is what it looks like now that it's finished.  It's still up in our classroom.  I think we'll do something similar with a large Easter egg during April.  The children enjoyed collaborating on this project, and it was something they could all do successfully!

 

Comments

[Laura]

Great, Olga! I am so glad to hear you found this idea useful. There are so many variations you could use.
Thanks so much for writing!
Laura

To: [email protected]

[olga shalman]

Thank you so much for great ideas! I am fairly new to Montessori and your blog has been a great inspiration to me. My children loved this work and after they were done with the rainbow I have extended it to a vase with different colored flowers and now we are working on a butterfly. Wonderful!!!

[Lin]

This is a great activity for those children just learning to cut. The 'one snip' to cut through the paper works well. I used thin cardboard for a similar activity as it is a little easier to manage than the coloured paper we have.

If you are interested in other 'one snip' activities, I have worked with my own children to cut up strands of cheap bead necklaces from the dollar shop. They love the sound of the beads falling into a bowl and you can add an element of maths by allowing the children to cut off 10 beads, or put 3 beads in the first bowl, 5 beads in the second bowl etc.

Does that make sense??

[Stephanie]

Such a great idea!!!! Thanks for sharing!