Easy paper rainbow craft

Whilst poking around on Pinterest (my new obsession), I found this wonderfully easy rainbow craft that I had to share with you.  It was pinned from Fowl Single File, where the lady used it as decoration for an amazing rainbow-themed birthday party.  Since it was quick, easy, and rainbow, it fit perfectly with this week’s leprechauns and rainbows theme.  It was a good craft for my HeadStart group’s visit yesterday because 1) it was easy to prepare in large quantity (around 50) and 2) it was relatively simple for them to assemble (with adult assistance).

What you need:

Construction paper in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple

Scissors or paper cutter

Ruler (optional)

Stapler

What to do:

1.  Put your construction paper in a stack, in order from red to purple.

2.  Cut into strips of desired width (mine were around an inch) with a paper cutter.  If you are using scissors, you may wish to mark lines off on the red sheet of paper with a ruler and pencil.  You should be able to get 6-8 strips.  They absolutely do not have to be cut perfectly.

3.  Line up strips.  Leave the red at full length, then cut other colors at intervals–orange next longest, etc. with purple being the shortest.  I just sort of eyeballed it, but you could measure it with your ruler if you wanted to.  As a point of reference, my purple strip was generally just under seven inches.

4.  Stack the strips in order and staple them together at the end where all of them meet.  The other ends should appear as pictured to the left.

5.  Starting with the red, gradually fan the strips up into a rainbow shape.  When all of the strips are arc-ed up, gather the ends and staple them together.

For the HeadStart group, I just left them as booklets (see step 4).  Then I demonstrated to them how to fan it up into a rainbow.  They played around with it while adults circulated with staplers to secure the other ends.  They were so excited to take these back with them!