For some reason St. Patrick's Day and leprechauns always get me thinking about rainbows. Perhaps it's the illusive pot o' gold at the end of the rainbow or maybe it's all of the Springlike colors that I am so ready for after this cold, gray Winter. Whatever the reason, making rainbows is a great way to get your kiddies thinking about colors and all things Spring.

For this rainbow we used cereal, but I've also seen rainbows made of tissue paper, torn construction paper, and paint. I like the idea of cereal for several reasons: 1) you can sort it by colors, 2) picking up little pieces builds fine motor skills, 3) it creates a neat 3-D picture, and 4) you can snack while you create. Okay, so maybe 4 is not a very good reason, especially if you buy the cereal I bought. I think the number one ingredient is sugar, but an occasional indulgence won't hurt. I certainly don't buy sugary cereal very often; however, I do sometimes throw it into a homemade snack mix or sprinkle it on plain Cheerios to spice--er sweeten things up a bit.

To create this project with your little ones you will need:

Fruity O's cereal like Froot Loops (I bought store brand because it was cheapest)
Wet glue
6 small cups or an empty egg carton for sorting
Cotton Balls
Black Marker for drawing picture outline (especially for younger kids)
Blue construction paper or Tag Board

First, I drew a very basic rainbow outline with a small circle in the corner for a sun. The rainbow outline does not have to be perfect, mine was actually a far cry from perfect, because it is going to be covered with glue and cereal. It really just serves as a guide so that your little one will keep the rainbow shape.

Next, I poured a small pile of cereal out onto a paper plate and placed the 6 small cups on the table. I used empty fruit/applesauce cups that I keep around for just this sort of project. I told my four year old son and two year old daughter that we had to sort the cereal by color and showed them how to put the red o's in one cup, the orange in another, and so on. My daughter is learning her colors now and is pretty solid on blue, orange and red, so if it was another color like green I would tell her the color and ask her to put it with the others that were the same color. She actually did a pretty good job. For my son, this was a really easy task. The actual hard part was trying to get them to sort the cereal and not eat it all. My recommendation is to complete this project after a full meal, just kidding, or maybe not.

After sorting we were ready for gluing. We talked about rainbows and what colors we see in rainbows. We also sang "The Rainbow Song" which is a little tune I remember my little brother singing in preschool (so random I know). It has it's own tune and the words are "Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple. These are the colors of the rainbow." Then we talked about what color you see first in a rainbow: Red. I made an arched line of glue and told my son to start with red.

I'm not really sure why, but he started on the left, moved to filling in from the right, then went to the middle of the arch. I helped my daughter work on one too, but she gave up about halfway through the row and then kept eating and sorting the cereal into cups.

After gluing the red arch, my son glued orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. He would stop and sing the song in between colors to remember what came next.

After we finished gluing all of the rows I let my son put some glue on the paper to glue cotton balls to the bottom bands of the rainbow for clouds.

To finish the picture, I put glue inside the sun circle and my son added yellow o's to make a sun. You could also use torn tissue or construction paper for this for a different texture or material.

And here's our finished rainbow.

This colorful project will certainly have your little one ready to cast those snow boots aside for sunny days. Go ahead outside and go on a rainbow hunt. Who knows maybe you'll catch yourself a leprechaun or maybe even find a pot o' gold!

Ever wonder what to do with all of those lids from containers that you recycle? Don't throw them away, save them! Okay, before you think I've gone completely off the deep end by keeping something that you typically throw away, let me first begin by saying how much I don't like trash or keeping extra things that are not necessary. However, when you are on a budget or even when you're not and you just want to reduce your carbon footprint, reusing items that you would typically throw away for the enjoyment and education of your child is a great idea. You're going to have to trust me on this one.

First, you need a great big container to store them in. I used an empty pretzel barrel, look at that, reusing two things I would normally throw away. I taped a new label on the front and bam, I had a storage container for lids. See no need to buy anything. I mean really, doesn't it drive you crazy when you spend a bunch of money on toys and your kids would rather just play with the plastic containers in your kitchen cabinets. Well, if you have plastic containers anymore after all the BPA scares over the past few years. But that's beside the point. Here's my lid container.

Once you have your lid container, you can start saving lids. I basically saved any lid to a plastic container once the container was empty, for example I saved lids from milk jugs, applesauce squeezes, soda bottles, etc. I've even saved some lids from sour cream containers, mayonaise jars and laundry jugs to give a little more variety.

Before I put them in the container I always wash them thoroughly with soap and water. Also, make sure they are completely dry before putting them in your container, yes, I have a little bit of a mold phobia. I'm not going to lie, depending on how many lid items you use up in your house, it might take a while to get enough lids. I've been collecting lids for a little over six months and my container is a about halfway full. But no worries, your children can still play and learn without a ton of lids and you can always add as you go.

Okay, so now that you're saving lids, let me show you what you can do with them. Well, start by letting your kids explore with them. Let me take a moment to say that you should always watch your young children around the lids. Some of the lids I save are not safe for children under the age of three and could be a potential choking hazard. Or you can only save larger lids to be on the safe side. It's completely up to you. I'm a rebel, so I save them all and watch my youngest when she's playing with them. Let me take another moment to tell you to always build in exploration time to a lesson. Kids will be much more willing to listen and do what you want them to do, if they've felt you've given them ample time to look them over and see what they can do. The first thing my son did when I brought them out was dump the entire container onto the table with a satisfied, "CRASH!"

Then he began stacking and dumping them back into the container, while making truck noises. I'd say he has a healthy imagination. Meanwhile, my daughter played by selecting various lids and holding them up and saying, "Oooh, piddy!" She really thinks everything is pretty and wonderful. It's really amazing how happy she is about every little thing. Oh, to be 20 months old again, right?

So after a few minutes I asked my four-year-old son if there was anything he thought we could do with the lids (it's always nice to see what they're thinking) and he said, "we could sort them." Sorting was actually my plan, since one of the first math concepts we teach in kindergarten is looking for same and different qualities in objects and sorting things by how they are alike. So, I asked my son, "What does sorting mean?" He responded that you, "match up the colors." Perfect! One of the first ways kids sort is by color, because they notice color first. I mean think about it, if you describe something to someone you probably mention color and shape right away. So we sorted by color, all while trying to keep my 20 month old from messing up our piles.

Next, I tried to see if he could sort them a different way, which is kind of a tricky thing. He wasn't able to do it, but I showed him how we could sort them by size and we worked together to put them into goups by big, medium and small.

Then, I wanted to see if he knew how to make a pattern. He laid out some lids and said, here's a pattern, but it wasn't a pattern at all. I told him that a pattern had to repeat, so I made a couple of simple AB repeating color patterns and had him tell me what would come next and he was able to do that. Extending patterns comes before creating, but I just wanted to see what he already knew.

After a few minutes of extending patterns, my son said, "Mommy, can I just play?" and I knew lesson time was over. Then he and my daughter played for about 10 more minutes until the lids starting flying all over the kitchen, then I knew it was time to put them away. Back into the lid container, until we pull them out another day.

As I sit and type this post other ideas for ways to use these lids for learning are jumping around in my brain like little light bulbs going off. So, if you need a few more reasons to convince you to keep lids for learning, here they are...

Ways to Use Lids

Sorting (color, size, type, etc)
Creating and Extending Patterns
Counting by 1's-You can count all or how many of a specific color.
Skip Counting-Place lids in groups of 5's or 10's to teach the concept of skip counting.
Use with a 100's chart to count to 100
Graphing-Take a sample of lids 10-15 and sort them by color. Create a picture graph by gluing them in lines on paper or color in spaces on graph paper to create a bar graph.
Make groups of more, fewer or the same as another group of objects
Build Letters or Numbers
Make a mosaic picture to create a unique piece of art
Play

I'm sure there are many other ways to use lids. So, feel free to get creative!

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Put A Lid On It