Rainbow Themed Learning Journal Activities
If you haven’t tried learning journal activities yet, first of all, you’re in the right place! You can read all about what a learning journal is and how to get started in this post here!
When it comes to journal activities, you can’t beat a good theme. I love coming up with ideas that relate to the season we’re in, or the next upcoming holiday. I’ve found that they are that much more engaging for my kids, plus they’re fun to create!
The ideas in this post are rainbow themed, which is a perfect theme leading up to St. Patrick’s Day, or even after while transitioning from winter to spring. You’ll find ideas for toddlers, preschoolers, kindergartners, and even early elementary aged children that all incorporate either literacy, math, and/or fine motor skills!
If you end up loving these ideas and want access to over 300 more learning journal activities all organized by age group with links to materials and modifications for different ages included with each one, PLUS printable activities, you can check out my Digital Learning Journal Membership below!
A "learning journal" is a blank sketchbook that is used to hand draw & personalize learning activities for your child based on different developmental skills. This membership makes your learning journal experience a breeze by providing you with a digital toddler, preschool, kindergarten, & early elementary aged journal activity guide. The 4 guides are organized by developmentally appropriate, seasonal & non-seasonal activities, & are frequently updated with new ideas.
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Tape the Rainbow
Materials:
blank journal
black sharpie
markers
colored painter’s tape
Tear pieces of colored painter’s tape in advance and stick them to the edge of a table for toddlers ages 18 months-3 years old to stick them to the matching-colored lines. For older toddlers ages 3 and up, you can add even more fine motor work to the activity by letting them tear or even cut (with child-safe scissors) their own pieces of tape to place on the colored lines.
Dot a Rainbow
Materials:
blank journal
black sharpie
markers
dot markers
This activity is a great way to work on naming and matching colors, while also practicing spatial awareness and placement, and hand-eye coordination. With younger toddlers, be sure to model how to use the dot markers to dot on top of the matching colors and don’t be surprised if they decide to go rogue. ;) You can encourage and redirect, but in the end, if they are more interested in dotting the picture their own way, that’s okay too. You are still exposing them to a new experience, talking about colors, and giving them plenty of learning opportunities by letting them explore the activity.
You can adapt this activity for older children by replacing the dots with numbers, shapes, or letters, and creating a color code (see next activity).
Number Rainbow
Materials:
blank journal
black sharpie
fine point black sharpie
dot markers
This is a great way to modify the “Dot a Rainbow” activity for older toddlers, preschoolers, or kindergartners. Depending on the age of the child, you can replace the dots with numbers 1-6, 6-12, teen numbers, any other numbers, or even shapes or letters. Use a fine point sharpie to be able to write them clearly and create a color code that designates a color for each number (shape, or letter) at the bottom of the page.
Raining Color Words
Materials:
blank journal
black sharpie
dot markers
This activity is geared toward older pre-k or kindergarten aged children (ages 4-6). Children can use what they know about beginning letter sounds and decoding words to read each color word and dot it with the coordinating-colored dot marker.
Rainbow Color Matching
Materials:
blank journal
black sharpie
markers
dot stickers
This one activity can be modified in several different ways, which is what you’ll be seeing from here through the rest of this post. Starting with color matching, this activity allows toddlers (ages 18 months-3 years) to name colors and match colors by building fine motor skills as they peel and stick dot stickers over the black dots on each matching-colored rainbow column.
Name Rainbow
Materials:
blank journal
black sharpie
markers
dot stickers
This version of the activity is geared toward preschool-aged children (3-5) and works on identifying and matching the letters in their name. Some toddlers may be ready for an activity like this closer to age 2, and children closer to 4-5 may be ready to also incorporate the lowercase versions of the letters.
Write the letters in the rainbow-colored columns and write the coordinating letters on dot stickers for them to peel, match, and stick in the journal.
For more fun activities to help your toddler learn the letters in their name, check out this post here. For more name journal ideas for preschoolers, click here!
Rainbow Word Families
Materials:
blank journal
black sharpie
fine point black sharpie
markers
dot stickers
This was such a fun one for my kindergartner! Once children know letters and letter sounds, they can start working on segmenting and blending these sounds to read three-letter CVC words. You can download my free printable word list here that includes a list of CVC word families to use as a reference when creating activities like this.
If you like this activity and would like more CVC word resources for practice with segmenting and blending, check out my CVC word printable resource here!
Rainbow Math Facts
Materials:
blank journal
black sharpie
fine point black sharpie
markers
dot stickers
Last but not least, let’s use this activity as a way to work on math facts with early elementary-aged children (5-7). You could even use this with children who are starting to learn multiplication. Simply write numbers across the top of the columns and write a variety of different math facts on the dot stickers for them to solve. They will place the math fact underneath the number that coordinates with its sum/difference/product; for example, the dot sticker that says “8+1” would go under the number “9” and so on.
Loving the rainbow theme? Check out this post with more rainbow themed activities for toddlers and preschoolers! Be sure to:
- Pin this post to your Pinterest to find the ideas again quickly
- Follow along on my Instagram to see my learning journal activities in action
- Tag @ohheyletsplay if you try any of these learning journal activities!
