Get kids learning about colors with this fun preschool color activity! I love making books with my students, and this one was definitely a hit. The children each made their own “I See a Rainbow” book focused on the colors of the rainbow. It reinforced color knowledge, along with so many early literacy concepts!
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Related: Spring Literacy Activities for Preschoolers
book-making and preschool color activity about the rainbow
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Materials
Long white paper or cardboard
Assorted construction paper
Stickers in rainbow colors
Markers in rainbow colors
Prep
Cut the paper or cardboard into long strips. Stack four strips on top of each other, pulling them apart a little bit so the overlap each other. Bring the left-hand side up and fold into a book with cascading pages. Staple along the side.
Print out a copy of the “I See a Rainbow” words. They can be hand-written too, of course!
Cut small strips of colored construction paper that will fit alongside each of the cascading book pages.
Related: Rainbow Color Collage Art Project for Kids
Directions
Have the child write her name on the front cover, then glue it to the front of the book.
Talk about the colors in rainbow order, then have her arrange the construction paper strips in the correct order. She can then glue each strip to the edge of the appropriate page (with help as needed, of course).
Open up to the first page. Have the child add the words, “I see red.” Read the words to her, pointing to each word. Encourage her to read them with you! Then she can add the illustrations. I gave my students the option of markers, stickers, or both. As long as the markers and stickers were the correct color, they could create any kind of illustration they wanted!
Continue with each color of the rainbow. I broke this book down into a few days. This allowed each child to move at his own pace without feeling overwhelmed.
The last page reads, “I see a rainbow!” The child can draw a rainbow on the last page!
Be sure to save the book to reread!
Related: Spring Activities for Preschoolers
so much learning with this preschool color activity
Here are some of the early learning concepts we touched on:
- Reading left to right
- Words have meaning
- There are spaces between words
- Color word recognition
- The colors of the rainbow appear in a certain order
- Color identification
A Full Week of Playful Rainbow Theme Ideas
Save time and get right to the playful learning with our printable lesson plan sets. Each set includes over 30 playful learning activities related to the theme, and we’ve provided different versions for home preschool families and classroom teachers so all activities are geared directly toward your needs.


Get yours here > > > Preschool Classroom | Home Preschool

I love this! We’ll make this book together this week because I know both my 2 year old and 5 year old will love it!
This is perfect for both of my kids! Adding this to the to-do list!
I love how the book is arranged with each color of the rainbow showing at once! What an awesome project.
Oh, I love this color tabbed book. Such a colorful idea!
I love this book!! Thanks for sharing this great idea!
This is a beautiful book! I’ll be doing it with our preschool co-op kids soon, tank you!!
Love this book idea – both of my kids could do it the older one creating poems based on the colours as that its our target at the moment and the younger cone collecting colours.
This is such a great idea for making a book that preschoolers can have independent success “reading!” “I CAN” books are some of our favorite DIY books, but we’ve never made a rainbow book! Thanks for the inspiration!
Love this. We will be making this book.