Are you wondering what rainbow writing is? Rainbow writing is a great learning technique to help kids learn to form and memorize letters, numbers, words, and even shapes. This is done by tracing repeatedly with different colors. In this blog, we provide detailed examples of rainbow writing and give you lots of resources to help you get started.
How to Rainbow Write
We created a video where we show you how to rainbow write and demonstrate a sample lesson of rainbow writing letters of the alphabet.
Rainbow Writing Letters
Rainbow writing is great when teaching students the alphabet. It helps students become more comfortable with the letters as they are learning to correctly form each letter. Our rainbow writing printable has pictures that begin with the corresponding letter to introduce students to the sound of the letter. See the sample lesson below under What is Rainbow Writing in Kindergarten? to see exactly how we taught this in our classrooms.
Rainbow Writing Words
Rainbow writing spelling words and sight words is another great tool used in the classroom and at home. This can be an excellent homework activity. To do this activity, write the words your child/student is learning on a blank paper. Have them trace over each word with different colors. Have them say each letter as they trace it, then read the word. Example: “s-e-e, see”. We also created rainbow writing sight words worksheets. These pages are great because not only do they give students the chance to rainbow write the words, they also get to find and color the words.
Rainbow Writing Numbers
When your students are learning to write numbers, have them rainbow write to get extra practice writing each number. You can do this on a blank page or use the rainbow writing number pages we created. These pages have an extra activity to find and color the number to reinforce number recognition.
Rainbow Writing Shapes
Another time to use rainbow writing is when students are learning shapes. Check out the rainbow writing template for shapes we created when teaching your students or child about shapes. There are pictures of real objects corresponding to the shape on these pages. There are pages for a square, triangle, rectangle and circle.
Rainbow Writing Worksheets
You can create each rainbow writing activity described above on blank paper, but if you are looking for rainbow writing templates, we’ve got you covered! We have created some wonderful rainbow writing worksheets for you to use. Our pages include rainbow writing letters, numbers, shapes, and sight words.
What is Rainbow Writing in Kindergarten?
The following is a sample lesson of how we taught rainbow writing letters in kindergarten.
Begin the lesson by reading your favorite alphabet book. Return to the page of the letter you are focusing on. Review the letter and sound. Watch the Alphabet PowerPoint Slideshow with Beginning Sounds to see real objects starting with the focus letter. You are now ready for the rainbow writing worksheets. It is important to do the worksheet all together to make sure students are forming the letters correctly. Have students put their paper on a clipboard and get three crayons. Teacher demonstrates how to complete the worksheet. Here’s how it goes:
- Go over the name and sound of the letter.
- Name each picture stressing the beginning sound (ex. /a/…/a/…/a/acrobat.)
- Model writing each letter starting on the dot. Explain how to form the letter as you trace it (ex. For A, you can say, slant down, slant down, cross over). Students repeat chant as they write the letter on their rainbow writing page with their first crayon.
- With a different color crayon, trace the letter again, repeating the chant. Students do the same. This is done one more time using a different crayon, 3 crayons in total.
- Follow steps 3 and 4 for the lowercase letter.
More Great Resources from 4 Kinder Teachers
The rainbow writing letter worksheets are part of our kindergarten literacy foundational skills curriculum. This fantastic kindergarten curriculum takes your students from learning the alphabet to learning multiple skills needed for reading and writing.
We have over 100 wonderful resources in our store all focused around kindergarten. We hope you check them out. We are always creating and adding to our store
