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Now that I’m back in the classroom and teaching first and second grade reading, I’ve had to re-visit these oldies but goodies for my students’ literacy centers. And you know me–I love it.
Never did rainbow words that way. Interesting. Always had the children write the word in one color and then trace over it with another color and then one more color.
fyi: Thank you Go Teach! for sponsoring this post. As always, all opinions are my own, influenced only by my experience as a parent and educator.
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Over the years, though, I’ve come up with tons of super cool and super fun ways that our little ones can learn these important words because I know how important it is.
What a fun way to help the child stay engaged! This could be an ongoing project that could be kept in a little book at the end of the year. It would be interesting to see the progress as the year goes on and each version could include different forms of color, like markers, pens, crayons, etc. Love this, thanks for sharing!
However, learning sight words can also be one of the most boring things our kids can do as they become readers.
Learning sight words is one of the most important things that our kids can do as they become readers.
Add colour and fun to your learning with all these extra ideas for rainbow activities. Ideas include maths, literacy, art, craft, and sensory play, plus many more free printables. Get these free resources so your teaching organised for you, and so easy to set up – and your children get to delight in engaging, multi-sensory, fun learning. See all the rainbow activities here.
Practise is the key! By writing out a word several times your child will build up a ‘muscle-memory’ of how the word is formed. Using the colours of the rainbow adds an extra-sensory element – and remember to say each word out loud as your write too.
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More lovely rainbow activities for your children!
These printable rainbow writing sheets give you a quick-to-set-up, visually-inviting way to learn spelling words.
If you're already subscribed to our email newsletter : check your email for the latest edition of the newsletter where you’ll find a link to access our free printables library - the link is usually at the bottom of the email.
These free printable rainbow writing sheets are a fun way to practise spelling and make a great addition to a rainbow themed literacy center. Print yours and try these rainbow learning activities.
You can print as many pages as you need for your whole class, or for your child to use with their spelling list each week – and see below for an idea on how to make one sheet re-useable.
We're always trying to mix things up over here--get a little crazy, even--when it comes…
fyi: Thank you Go Teach! for sponsoring this post. As always, all opinions are my own, influenced only by my experience as a parent and educator.
Each week, my students focus on 4-5 different sight words. We practice them every day, and we search for them in guided reading books.
If you want to download the Rainbow Words printable, you may do so here:
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Many sight words aren’t even words that can be sounded out, so most decoding strategies don’t work for them.
Several times over the last few weeks, Maddy, Owen, and I have played Sight Word…
The reason sight words are important is because these are words that students need to learn to read by sight. That means, they need to be able to read these words anywhere and everywhere and they need to read them quickly.
Who doesn’t love using gel pens?! These pens write easily and clearly, and they don’t smudge. They’re awesome–and they’re perfect for Rainbow Words!
After the kiddos write in their journals they use their Rainbow Writing Prompts to double check their work. When they notice they've missed something they can go back and correct it.
Writing isn't always easy though. In an effort to make journal writing more successful, I created a system called Rainbow Writing. The kiddos need cues and visuals to help them remember the writing process each day. They are all at different levels, so I created three different print outs.
Other times I like using the journal questions to help the kiddos work through big emotions about sensitive topics that may be bothering them. They're more apt to write about something than express it verbally.
- Who
- What
- Where
- Why
- When
- How
Questions are open ended questions and at times have a "why" tacked onto them to encourage writing and expression for those who write more than one sentence answers.
Daily Journal Tasks
I try my best to rotate question words so that the kiddos practice responding to each of the question words.
Other than the kiddos' corrections, writing stays in it's original form to show a natural progression of the kiddos' knowledge, and to help them build confidence in their own abilities. No corrections are made by the teacher. I have loved watching the kiddos' writing improve over time. It's such a magical process.
I love their journals. They've been a fabulous way to find out how much the kiddos are retaining in other subject areas. Usually, questions are based on our current unit of study or something else they're learning.
They also love seeing the progression as I keep their journals from year to year. They feel such satisfaction in observing their own progress.
Looking for more handwriting ideas? Here are some of my favorites:
- Ask your child to draw an “X” in each circle, without going over the lines.
- Ask your child to draw horizontal or vertical lines within each circle, much like we did here.
- Create a color coding activity: Match one circle color up with another pencil color. When you call out a color, your child can fill in that colored circle with a different, predetermined colored pencil. This is a test of visual scanning and quick thinking.
- Draw larger circles and show your child how to fill them in with strait pencil strokes.
- Work on pencil control strokes using the pages in our Colors Handwriting Kit
The objective here is to fill in the whole circle without going over the lines. Because the circle is so small, filling it in with the colored pencil requires very small muscle movements of the fingers.
This overcompensation does not allow fluid motions of the fingers when moving the pencil in handwriting. Because the circles are so small, the child can focus more on using the small motor motions to fill in the color.
Rainbow Pencil Control Exercises
- First, draw a bunch of circles in different colors on a piece of paper. The circles should be 1/4 inch in diameter.
- Ask your child to fill in the circle with the matching colored pencil. A red circle should be filled in with the red colored pencil.
This rainbow handwriting activity is part of the Rainbow Activities for Kids series. Find more rainbow activities here:
With this activity, we’re working on keeping the pencil strokes within the lines of a small circle.
Extend this activity to further your child’s fine motor skills and pencil control in handwriting: