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Home / Early Learning / Math / Learning Shapes and Colors with Rainbow Rocks

Learning Shapes and Colors with Rainbow Rocks

Shared by Mary Catherine 13 Comments

I love using rocks to teach children!  We’ve made pet rocks and number rocks both at home and in the classroom, and they have always been a hit with the kids.  For this go, I used a larger collection of rocks.  This way, my preschoolers could use them for learning shapes and colors, along with patterns and sorting.  We always seem to have a large amount of rocks around, so why not use them?!

Learning Shapes and Colors with Rainbow Rocks

And since this activity is all about rainbows and shapes, that makes it the perfect addition to your list of St. Patrick’s Day math activities!

I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Table of Contents

  • Making Rainbow Rocks
  • Learning Shapes and Colors with Rainbow Rocks
  • A Full Week of Playful Rainbow and Rock Theme Ideas

Making Rainbow Rocks

Please forgive me in advance if they aren’t as pretty and well-painted as they could be!  As the Laurie Berkner Band says . . . “I’m not perfect, but I’ve got what I’ve got.”  Yes, I’m showing my preschool teacher stripes again!  🙂

Learning Shapes and Colors with Rainbow Rocks

To make the rainbow shape rocks, I grabbed all of the acrylic paint I had on-hand.  I’m one of those people who picks up art supplies when they are heavily discounted or just a few bits at a time.  It’s amazing how much accrues over time, just doing that!

I had a lot of colors to choose from, so I settled on using all of the basic colors young children need to learn — red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, white, brown, black, and gray.  I didn’t have brown or gray, so I picked up brown paint and just made my own version of gray.

Learning Shapes and Colors with Rainbow Rocks

Once the acrylic paints were all over nicely laid out on my kitchen table, I grabbed the rocks.  Again, river rocks are often found in my craft closet.  I settled on making 3 rocks of each color, so I made sure I had more than 33 rocks.  That definitely wasn’t a problem!  Engineer had a good stash too, as he was painting his own rocks alongside me.  Oh, and in case you’re wondering why there are two versions of blue, that was Engineer’s doing.  So I ended up with a total of 36 rocks!

From there, it was just a  matter of painting the rocks.  I painted both sides of the rocks with a few coats of paint each.  Obviously, this didn’t happen in just one day.  It was done in spurts of 20 to 30 minutes when I got the chance!

Learning Shapes and Colors with Rainbow Rocks

Related: Rainbow Color Collage Art Project for Kids

Once the rocks were super colorful, I went back and added shapes to one side of each rock.  Again, I focused on shapes that young children are familiar with or need to learn — square, triangle, rectangle, circle, oval, diamond/rhombus, star, crescent, and heart.  I wasn’t going to include a crescent at first, but Engineer suggested it.  With 4 of each shape, that ensured that all 36 of my rocks had a shape.

Learning Shapes and Colors with Rainbow Rocks

After everything was dry, I did end up going back with a clear acrylic sealer.  This way, the paint should last longer when little ones are playing with them!  This is the only picture I took of the sealed versions — they look the same, but shinier!  🙂

Learning Shapes and Colors with Rainbow Rocks

Learning Shapes and Colors with Rainbow Rocks

Yes, 36 sounds like a ton of rocks!  However, I want to be able to use these rainbow shape rocks with my preschool class in a variety of ways.  Having so many will help me work on a variety of math skills with the kids.

Below are some of the ways my students will be learning shapes and colors (and more early math skills) with these rainbow rocks.  I’m sure the preschoolers will come up with MANY more ways to use these rocks!!

  • Sort by color and by shape
  • Create patterns with the colors and with the shapes
  • Identify the shapes and colors
  • Put the colors in rainbow order
  • Match the colors to items around the classroom
  • Explore one-to-one correspondence
  • Search out shapes that correlate with the shapes on the rocks
  • Count the rocks
Teaching Shapes and Colors with Rainbow Rocks

Why use rocks for learning shapes and colors, along with other math concepts?  Oh, there are so many reasons to do so!!  Because children love playing with rocks.  Because having rocks inside the classroom is a different experience, making it more memorable.  Because rocks feel different — their textures, shapes, and weights create a unique learning experience integrating different senses.  Basically, because they’re fun!

How have you used rocks with your children/students?  I’m always up for new ideas, so please share in the comment section below!!  🙂

A Full Week of Playful Rainbow and Rock 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.

rainbow lesson plans preschool

Get your rainbow plans here > > > Preschool Classroom | Home Preschool

Get your rock plans here > > > Preschool Classroom | Home Preschool

Learning Shapes and Colors with Rainbow Rocks - fun, hands-on way for kids to explore early math concepts

Originally published August 22, 2013. 

Filed Under: Math Tagged With: Colors, rocks, Shapes

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  1. Sandi says

    August 23, 2013 at 1:36 am

    Those are so much fun. Can’t wait to see what the kids do with them.

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      August 23, 2013 at 1:00 pm

      Thanks, Sandi! I’m excited to use them with the kiddos too! Engineer loved using them and playing with them — quite intent on stacking them up!

      Reply
  2. Laura says

    August 24, 2013 at 3:37 am

    Wonderful rocks! Love them! The idea; pretend play the fruit and vegetable stand, selling them as fruits and vegies of the same color.

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      February 16, 2014 at 8:35 am

      Thanks so much, Laura! I love the idea of integrating the rocks into dramatic play! 🙂

      Reply
  3. Kali @ For the Love of Spanish says

    August 29, 2013 at 8:48 am

    Your blog is beautiful!! And this activity looks so fun! Now following. 🙂

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      February 16, 2014 at 8:36 am

      Kali, you are so sweet. Thanks for your kind words! 🙂

      Reply
  4. Kate says

    August 29, 2013 at 10:45 pm

    What a gorgeous idea. I love it and like to feature it on our ‘Share It Saturday’ post. x

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      February 16, 2014 at 8:36 am

      Awww, thanks so much for the sweet words and the feature!!!

      Reply
  5. Sugar Aunts says

    August 29, 2013 at 10:48 pm

    I love this! We are featuring your post this week on Share It Saturday. Thanks for linking up and see you again at the party 🙂
    Colleen at Sugar Aunts

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      February 16, 2014 at 8:36 am

      Thank you!!!! 🙂

      Reply
  6. Shaunna @ Fantastic Fun and Learning says

    February 19, 2014 at 7:50 am

    I love these beautiful rocks and all the fun activities you can do with them! Thanks so much for linking up to Discover & Explore. I’m featuring this post today.

    Reply
  7. Julie says

    November 2, 2022 at 8:22 am

    How do you use 36 stones with a class of 25?

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      November 2, 2022 at 10:41 am

      I introduced the rocks during small groups, so I only had 3 to 5 children using the rocks at a time. Once the kids understood the basics, I placed them in the math center during center time. So there weren’t too many children using them at any one time.

      Reply
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My name is Mary Catherine, and I love to share meaningful {and fun} learning activities for kiddos! Feel free to browse and stay awhile!

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