One of the best things about spring is all the colors that start to manifest themselves. Not only are the flowers and new growth beautiful to look at, they also open up a new world of possibilities for crafting and nature exploration. Which makes it the perfect time to do this nature rainbow craft, which is one of my absolute favorites!
We’ve done this activity multiple times, and it never gets old. The results are always gorgeous and completely unique each time depending on what’s in bloom! I love seeing how different the results look in each season or even over the course of the same season.
Did I mention that there’s a free printable for you to use as a template? Just print it out and you’re ready to go! Follow along below to create your very own nature rainbow craft!
Gather your nature supplies.
We like to do this in two steps: nature walk/collecting first, and craft second. In the past, I tried to bring the printable along on the walk and it just gets wrinkled.
It’s also kind of annoying to pull it out and try to glue something on without a flat surface every time you find a new color. Isn’t it great to learn from other people’s mistakes rather than having to make them yourself?
So head outside first and gather all your colors! You might want to bring along some scissors and a jar or container for collecting. (We just used a mason jar.) This was my little dude’s favorite part. I asked him if he wanted to help me find all the colors of the rainbow outside.
“Yeah! Sure, sure.” He got even more excited when he learned that scissors were involved. I don’t know why, but my three-year-old LOVES anything involving scissors. So it can also be a great opportunity to go over the basics of walking safely while holding sharp things 😀 Didn’t know you’d get to sneak a safety lesson in with your rainbow craft, did ya?
If you can’t find every color, feel free to get creative! You can always add some white, gray, tan, or brown instead.
We were able to find all of the colors we needed right in our own yard (with the exception of blue, which is always the most difficult). Feel free to do the same or venture out on a walk around your neighborhood or take a hike nearby! If you happen to have a garden or flowers planted in your landscape, you might be good to go!
Keep your eyes peeled for different colors and collect as much variety for each one as possible! Put everything that you find in your jar to sort out later.
Sort out the colors.
Once you find all the colors, bring them back to your home base where you plan on doing the actual craft portion (which is mostly just gluing). Grab an assortment of bowls and containers so that there’s one for every color.
Then have your kids sort all the colors into the different bowls. If you have a younger child who is still getting familiar with colors, this is a great activity in itself! It’s not an absolutely necessary step for kids who are older, but I kind of enjoy sorting myself. But it’s completely up to you!
If you had some pieces that were bigger like large petals or leaves, feel free to let the kids cut them into smaller pieces. My little guy also enjoyed pulling the petals off of the flowers. Deconstructing things can be fascinating!
Start making your rainbow!
Pull the different pieces you found for each color and start gluing them onto the matching section of the printable. I’ve also used double-sided tape in the past if you are not a fan of glue. And that’s all there is to it!
It’s so fun to watch this rainbow craft come together as you add each color!
My little dude wasn’t impressed at first. But as we added more and more colors, he told me, “Wow! That’s a pretty rainbow. But it was ugly at first”. So there you have it: the unfiltered opinion of a candid three-year-old about this project.
Here’s what our finished product looked like! (Printable has been updated!)
And that’s it for making your own nature rainbow craft! Make sure to grab the free printable below and let me know how it goes! Take advantage of the opportunity to help our little ones learn their colors while getting a dose of nature!
If you want more printables for easy outdoor activities with your kids, grab some more freebies here! Or for more pretty flower craft ideas for spring, check out this post!
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