Baby Bins: Rainbow

To celebrate the end of our color themed bins we went out with a rainbow themed bang. This week was a great way to review all of the colors we have learned so far.

Many of you have asked about mastery of concepts with baby bins. Aubrey definitely does not identify all of her colors consistently yet, but after all of our color themed baby bins she is using color word more and trying to label colors when asked. The goal with baby bins is not 100% mastery, instead I focus on learning through play, exposure to new concepts, and building vocabulary.

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Here is a look at what we planned for our second set of 6 color themed baby bins:

Here are the details for each of our activities:

Rainbow Read Aloud:

What Makes a Rainbow? by Betsy Schwartz is a fun interactive book that reviews all of the colors of the rainbow. As you turn each page a new colored ribbon magically appears to form a rainbow. The last page has a pop up rainbow surprise as well making this book a great choice for holding little ones attention while reviewing each color.

Rainbow Themed Sensory Bin:

Included in this bin:

Froot Loops Cereal

Rainbow Cups

Fine Motor Tools

Rainbow Mat

Play ideas for this bin:

1. Scoop dump and play using various fine motor tools

2. Sort cereal by color intomatching cups.

3. Build a rainbow by matching colors on the rainbow mat.

Rainbow Scarf Stuffing:

We love baby wipe containers for stuffing items because

1: We always seem to have 10 laying around.

and

2: They hold up to the abuse of a baby/toddler really well.

This week I pulled out our rainbow scarves and placed them in the container in rainbow order with purple at the bottom. Aubrey reached in to pull out each color and we practiced naming each one. Then she chose scarves to stuff back in and we practiced saying the color names again.

Rainbow Finger Paint:

Sometimes simple activities are best, so I figured a little finger painting would be a great way to have fun with all of our rainbow colors. Aubrey is a painting pro now, so I chose to use our regular tempera paints for bright colors. If you have a baby that still puts everything in their mouth try one of these taste safe paint recipes from Can Do Kiddo.

Rainbow Soap Sensory Bath:

I’ll admit our little Aubrey actually doesn’t love bath time like many kids her age, but this rainbow soap sensory bath was so much fun, she couldn’t resist jumping right in. To prepare the bath, I brought our hand mixer up to our bathroom with a large bowl and some liquid watercolors. (You could also use food coloring if your baby is going to try eating the bubbles)

I squeezed about 2 tablespoons dish soap into the bowl and mixed it with about 1/4 cup of water and a few drops of liquid watercolors. (Just keep mixing for a few minutes until you get a big fluffy bowl of foam.)

Then I scooped it up in my hands and placed it in the bathtub. I repeated with each color before letting Aubrey jump in so we could start out with separated colors before she mixed and swirled them all together.

Rainbow Bubble Wrap Painting:

We finished up our color themed baby bins with this mess free painting activity is brought to you by bubble wrap. Aubrey kind of has an obsession with popping the bubbles (I mean I kind of do too…) so I saved a few pieces for this fun project. …..

Here’s what we did:

Fold a large rectangle of bubble wrap in half and tape the sides with packing tape to create an envelope big enough to fit a piece of paper.

Squirt tempera paint onto a sheet of paper. I made a rainbow, but you could use any colors you want and just make blobs all over the paper for mixing.

Slide the paper carefully into the bubble wrap envelope trying not to squish the paint too much.

Tape the top of the envelope shut with more packing tape. (Lots of packing tape if your little one is crazy about popping those bubbles like mine!)

Let your kiddo go to town popping bubbles and squishing the paint. All with no mess!

Cut the sides of the bubble wrap open and peel it off the paper. Let the paint dry and display your beautiful art!

If you are looking for all of the plans and printables for this week’s theme I will be posting them soon! If you’d like to be notified as soon as they are available please subscribe to my newsletter (in the sidebar to the right) and/or join our Tot School and Preschool Facebook group here: