Rainbow Story Times

This week the theme for all of my story times was "Rainbows."  There are some great songs and fingerplays, but not enough books on the subject.  One of my favorites, that is now out of print except for the board book edition, is What Makes a Rainbow by Betty Ann Schwartz.  A little rabbit asks all of his friends how a rainbow is made and they all mention their own color as a ribbon of the same color is added to the rainbow.  Another good story is Elmer and the Rainbow by David McKee - our favorite patchwork elephant comes to the rescue of a rainbow that has lost it's colors. 

Some fun rainbow songs are Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole - a Hawaiian version of the classic - I have the children play egg shakers and rainbow scarfs would also work well. The kids also love Make a Rainbow, which is sung to the tune of Skip to My Lou: "Take some cherries, put them in a pot. Stir them, stir them, stir them a lot! Pour it out now, what will it be? The prettiest RED you ever did see!" Continue with orange, lemon, lime, blueberries and grapes. Children can pantomine stirring and pouring and then call out the colors. The song finishes" Red and orange, yellow and green, blue and purple colors are seen.  Put them together and what will it be? The prettiest rainbow you ever did see!"

A great song to begin story time is Mary Wore a Red Dress and substituting each child's name and the color they are wearing: "Mary wore a Red dress, red dress, red dress, Mary wore a red dress, all day long." 

For a simple craft you can cut white paper plates in half and have the children color them as rainbows.