A lot of people have been asking the question, what is rainbow writing? As teachers who used rainbow writing in kindergarten, we’re happy to supply the answer. It is an engaging activity used to help students practice writing or drawing something multiple times. Simply put, rainbow writing is tracing repeatedly with different colors.
The Rainbow Writing video below is a sample lesson of how we used rainbow writing in our kindergarten classrooms.
How To Do Rainbow Writing
The beauty of rainbow writing isn’t in the swirly mess of colors it produces, but in the way it’s used to help students learn. It’s also a lot of fun. And by the way, children love the swirly mess of colors they produce. This activity is used as a form of practice after a student has been explicitly taught how to do it. Model, model, model. Be sure to show your students where to start and finish their tracing. See our sample lesson below to understand how we taught this in our classrooms!
What is Rainbow Writing in Kindergarten?
While teaching kindergarten we used it to help students learn how to correctly form each letter of the alphabet. Just as easily, rainbow writing can be used to help students learn how to form numbers and shapes. We’ve also used it for practice writing sight words. Parents, this is an excellent homework activity. Rainbow writing spelling words is another great tool used in the classroom and at home. When doing this activity, simply write the words you want your child to learn and have them trace over each word with different colors. Make sure they say each letter as they trace it, then read the word. Example: “t-h-e the”
Rainbow Writing the Alphabet
Here at 4 Kinder Teachers, we recommend rainbow writing for young children, 3 to 6 years old. These rainbow writing alphabet worksheets not only teach students how to correctly form each letter of the alphabet, but they also have pictures that begin with the corresponding letter. Your little ones will learn how to identify and write the letter as well as associating the correct sound with it. We also offer wonderful Alphabet slideshows for each letter of the alphabet that go right along with the rainbow writing alphabet pages! The alphabet slideshows work on PowerPoint or Google Slides.
So, if your children need some fun, engaging practice, break out the crayons, markers or colored pencils and get started!
Sample Lesson
Start the lesson by reading an alphabet book, then go back to the page of the focus letter for the day. Go over the letter and sound with them. Then show them the Alphabet PowerPoint Slideshow with Beginning Sounds to see some real objects that start with the focus letter. Then you are ready for the rainbow writing worksheets. We liked to do this worksheet all together to make sure students were forming the letters correctly. We gave students a clipboard or white board to put their paper on and asked them to get three crayons and sit on the learning carpet. The teacher had a paper to demonstrate, and the students were instructed not to write on their page until after the teacher showed them what to do. Here’s how it went:
- Introduce the letter by going over the name of the letter and the sound it makes.
- Point to and sound out each picture stressing the sound of the letter (ex. /a/…/a/…/a/apple.)
- Demonstrate how to write each letter starting on the dot, starting with the capital letter.Use one crayon at a time to trace the capital letter, explaining how to form the letter. (ex. For A, we would say, diagonal down, diagonal down, cross) Have students repeat as they write the A on their rainbow writing page with one crayon.
- Then, get a different color crayon to trace the capital letter again, repeating how to form it. Have students repeat. Do this one more time with a different crayon, using 3 crayons in total.
- Do steps 3 and 4 with the lowercase letter.
Rainbow Writing Worksheets
Click HERE to access all our rainbow writing worksheets, letters, numbers and shapes. You can also purchase them separately. We have created Rainbow Writing Letters A-Z Alphabet Animals, Rainbow Writing Numbers, and Rainbow Writing Shapes. There are instructions on how to complete these pages with your purchase.
If you are looking for more alphabet worksheets, we have a lot of great activities and advice on how to use the worksheets!
