A Rainbow Of My Own- A Storytime Activity

With St. Patrick’s Day coming up and all the craziness in the world right now, we decided some bright and cheerful rainbows was just what we needed! For this week’s #mtnwildstorytime we read A Rainbow Of My Own by Don Freeman. This is a picture book from the 60s that is still incredibly loved today by young readers. I wanted to make a fun rainbow craft that would also double as a decoration in my son’s playroom. So we created a clay rainbow wall hanging!

We used white air-dry clay but you can make this craft a couple different ways. You can use colored air dry clay and skip the painting part. Or you can use oven bake clay and paint it. I bought a 10lb box of clay from Hobby Lobby a couple weeks ago and we have been having a blast making all sorts of creations with it.

To Make The Rainbow:

First my son rolled out four “snakes” of the clay to make them about the same width. It doesn’t matter how long they are because you are going to trim the excess off at the end anyways.

He made a rainbow shape and started to gently squeeze each “snake” together. He smoothed out any rough spots or little indents.

Then we took a knife and trimmed the bottom to make it more even.

I used a toothpick to poke holes at the bottom. I should have made the holes larger! The yarn was much too thick for this little hole so I ended up just shoving the yarn in with a bit of glue instead of threading it all the way through the hole. He used a straw to poke a larger hole at the top to hang it from a string.

We let this sit out for about 24 hours and then got to painting!

He painted each section the appropriate color and then once that was dry I helped him shove that yarn into the bottom holes.

We made two rainbows. One was thicker that had only five colors and the other was thinner and had six colors.

As most crafts go, you can really customize this to your style or preference. You could paint this all neutrals for a really modern and trendy rainbow or all one color, or just keep it the natural clay color!

We had a lot of fun with this activity and have been really loving working with clay. The projects are endless!

If you enjoyed this post, check out other storytime activites :

Over And Under The Snow

The Mitten

It Came In The Mail

Follow along on Instagram where I share a new picture book and activity that goes along with the book! And don’t forget to follow the hashtag #mtnwildstorytime

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