Crafts
Fine Motor
Learning
Spring
St Patrick's DayToddlersPreschoolers40 Comments
This Fruit Loops rainbow craft is cute and fun for preschoolers to practice color matching. Simply color match the Fruit Loops to the Rainbow.
I was itching for a spring activity, something that would work on color matching, too. Then I thought about creating a Fruit Loops rainbow craft – using Fruity Cheerios cereal!
But Henry was having one of “those” days – where everything is too much or not enough.
Everything was “Nooooo….” or “Not now….” or “I’m busy.” As he lays around my house also telling me he’s “bored.”
Do you ever have those days with your kids?
Until I mentioned rainbows…
Rainbows are a great medium for kids to practice their colors.
Prep to Make the Fruit Loops Rainbow Craft
To make your own color matching Fruit Loops rainbow craft, you’ll need:
- colorful cereal, like fruity Cheerios
- construction paper
- markers
- glue
- cotton balls
So I pulled out some fruity colored Cheerios (affiliate link) and drew a rainbow with markers. There’s only 5 colors of the cereal, so I stuck with those colors.
Ideally, a rainbow craft for preschoolers would include all 7 of the colors of the rainbow: ROYGBIV (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet), but we can’t always win and sometimes we have to use what we have.
I used a large plate to start my rainbow. I traced around it to make a semi-circle with a red marker. Then spaced the other lines out the size of a Fruit Loop (I eyeballed these semi-circles for the rainbow).
Here is a link to a few options for a rainbow template for you to use from What Mommy Does. The Extra Large Rainbow Template looks like it will fit on a single sheet of paper and should be about just the right size spacing for Fruit Loops of each color!
This was definitely a collaborative effort.
Work on Color Matching with a Fun Spring Craft
For one, because of the prior mentioned aversion to my suggestions. And two because the glue tended to dry too fast for Henry to get the Fruit Loops on.
Henry matched up the colors of the Fruit Loops to the outline of the Rainbow. I glued little by little as we went along.
Henry, not quite yet a preschooler, did the entire rainbow craft himself with the occasional push from me to keep going.
You could also go on a toy rainbow hunt to get the kids moving!
Once he got going though, he really enjoyed it.
Henry popped some of the occasional double Cheerios that were stuck together into his mouth, along with some broken ones. He was very good about not eating the “good” ones, surprisingly.
After the Rainbow was complete, we added some clouds by tearing up cotton balls and gluing them on each end of the rainbow. To keep this in the theme of the edible crafting materials, you could use mini marshmallows instead of the cotton balls.
But whatever you got on hand works!
I cannot tell you how proud Henry is of his rainbow.
This rainbow will be staying up in the house long past St. Patrick’s Day.
If your preschooler loves to do crafts, this craft and over 70 beautiful crafts are in our easy to use eBook MAKE: Creative Crafts for Toddlers & Preschoolers to Make. These crafts are perfect for 2-5 year olds!
What is your favorite rainbow craft for preschool?
Here are a few more colorful rainbow activities for preschoolers!
WANT TO SAVE THIS ACTIVITY?
Enter your email below & we'll send it straight to your inbox so you can access this activity later! Plus, you'll get simple activities from us every week!
Lisa says
The fruit loop rainbow should be edible. Just make rainbows with the cereal…no glue…..maybe honey, like someone mentioned, to make it stick, rather than not stick to anything at all if thst gets too complicated. People around the world are hungry and have food insecurity, and we shouldn’t waste food for crafts. There are many people that feel this way, so if done in a school, it may be heavily frowned upon. Also, Maybe let’s make old school cereal necklaces that we used to and we can eat the necklace right off our necks like we did back in the day!
Rivka Neumann says
This afternoon my son has dental anethisia scheduled, so he can’t eat. I was looking for something to pass the morning so he’s not sitting complaining that he’s hungry- I saw this but I didin’t have rainbow cheerios! And I wanted it to take longer, so I gave my sons (2 and 3 years old)rectangles of paper and watercolor paint. I directed them to color each rectangle a different color of the rainbow . When all the colors were done I made the rainbow on the paper, cut the rectangles into little squares, and did the same thing as you with the cheerios! My 2 year old go bored of the painting after a while, but my 3 year old was going full force! As I type this he is finishing off his rainbow! Its adorable!! Thanks for the inspiration!
Cynthia says
Great idea. Rainbows are always fascinating for children, I think.
Kelsey says
How cute! I wonder if you could make an edible version of this by using something like honey to get the cereal to stick.
Nupur Chokhany says
Great idea. Maybe we could use an unsalted Base made of whole wheat, something like a wheat cracker sheet or a lavazza and then stick the cereals with honey, sprinkle some cardamon powder and then our edible rainbow is ready to eat…
Stephanie says
Great idea! I shared on our district’s Birth to Five Facebook page for getting kids ready for kindergarten. Thanks for posting!
http://www.facebook.com/U46GiveMeFive
Lisha says
VERY cute craft – hope to share some of your inspirational fun learning ideas with my parenting page fans at http://www.facebook.com/ConsciousParentingApproach! Thank you!!
Bex @ The Mummy Adventure says
This looks brilliant! Might give it a go with my little man although not sure he will be so good about not eating them!
Leigh Ann says
THAT is fantastic! Why didn’t I think of that? We are doing this!
TheBoyandMe says
This is ace! I love your creativity and ingenuity. I’m making this with The Boy most definitely.
LocalFunForKids says
It looks great! I know things like this can be challenging for little ones. But, it is SO good for their fine motor skills & every little bit helps. Thanks for linking up with Fun for Kids Friday
RedTedArt says
Oh! We have lots of those "no days"… well done for getting his attention and getting him "working"! Collaborative effort or not the final result is LOVELY!! And we often have to collaborate to finish things!!! :-)
Maggy
(thank you for linking up to Kids Get Crafty!)
Deborah says
Oh – and thank you soooo much for sharing your link on my rainbow linky today!
Deborah says
I love all the bright colors – I am thinking that maybe fruit Loops are much better for you to glue than to eat:)
Krissy @ B.Inspired says
Oooo – we've got some Froot Loops just begging for this! I feautred it on my blog today:
http://binspiredmama.blogspot.com/2011/03/link-love-7-fun-st-patricks-day.html
Thanks for the inspiration!
Lindsay says
Adorable!!! I love how this turned out!
Honeybee says
Cute. Maybe i can copy your idea to comfort my baby boy too.
Healthy Beautiful Blog
i'm your new follower.
Stacey says
i LOVE your blog! I will be using your ideas when Sam gets a little older [he's only 4 months]