Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Let's brighten up the week with some rainbow fun!

Culinary
Rainbow Kebabs
You'll need:

• assorted fruit in the colours of the rainbow! (e.g. strawberries, pineapple, canteloupe, kiwi, blueberries, grapes)
• skewers

Set bowls of cubed fruit within your child's reach. Help him/her push them onto the skewer! You could show them a picture of a rainbow and challenge them to add fruit in order of the colours. Or, you could ask them to create a repeating pattern, if they have favourite fruits (pineapple, grape, strawberry, pineapple, grape, strawberry)...OR you could just let them have at it and forget about the teaching opportunity! Drizzle with a bit of melted chocolate if you're feeling wild and crazy!

Creative
Patchwork Rainbow "Quilt"
You'll need:

• bits of fabric, sorted in bowls by colour (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple)
• a large piece of paper
• white glue (glue sticks don't work as well for fabric!)

Snip up materials into 1" pieces, and sort into bowls. On each paper, draw an arcing line with glue for your child to use as a guide. Placing one colour at a time on the table, help your child glue bits of fabric along the line, starting with red. When they've completed one line, draw another arcing line below the first one. Then give them the orange materials! Continue, with yellow, green, blue, and violet. If your child doesn't yet know his/her colours, make sure to talk with them as they create (e.g. "What can you see in the kitchen that is red? What other things are green?")

Social/Outing
This might be as involved as going to a museum or a public pool, or as simple as getting out to the barber shop or the grocery store! Talk to your child about the road signs you see. Ask them about what community helpers they see around town. Discuss why some people wear uniforms to work and others don't. Talk about what jobs require people to work alone, and which ones require people to work as part of a team.

Fine Motor
Lacing Cards
You'll need:

• construction paper or card stock
• hole punch
• yarn or a shoelace

Draw a simple shape (a shamrock, a rainbow, a car, a bird, or even just a circle or a square) on a piece of firm paper (there are tons of free templates on the internet, if the notion of hand-drawing a shape is scary for you). Cut it out, then hole-punch around the edges, with 1/2" spaces between. Secure the yarn to the back of the paper with tape, then let your child "sew" around the edges. Encourage them to put the yarn through each hole, but don't worry about what it looks like! I've seen Kindergarten kids switch from whip stitch (around and around) to running stitch (in and out) to blanket stitch on one card. The point is NOT to create something neat and wonderful, but to navigate that string into the hole, and pinch it to pull it all the way through. Some children WILL be very meticulous about making sure their stitches all look the same, but others won't. Love their work, no matter what it looks like!

*Helpful Hint: if you use yarn, you might want to wrap the end with tape (like a shoelace) to make it easier for your child to push it through the holes).

Enjoy your day, and make sure to check in for Wednesday: For the Birds!