Rainbow Walk/Scavenger Hunt

Description: The Rainbow Walk or Scavenger Hunt allows you to get outdoors and work on color identification skills. Bring your child on a walk to search for items that represent each of the colors of the rainbow. There are many variations of this activity and it can be altered based on your child’s age, interests, or learning objectives. You might want to start with watching this video that describes how rainbows develop (good for Pre-K) or this video for older children (elementary age).

Below are some of the possible variations of this activity.

For taking a rainbow walk, you can ask the child to identify items for each color of the rainbow. Such as asking the child to first look for red items, then orange, etc. Or you could develop a worksheet that has each color listed and then ask the child to place a check in the box every time they find an item for a specific color. If the child is older, you could ask them to write the item down next to the correct color.

Materials Needed:

A piece of paper with the colors listed
A pen or pencil

For items that can be brought home:

Find one item for each color of the rainbow, bring the items home, and have the child order the items based on the colors of the rainbow.

Materials Needed:

Bag to hold the collected items

For items that can’t be brought home:
1. Have your child stop and draw a picture of each item in a notebook or on a piece of paper as they go along.

Have your child take a picture of various items. At home, print the pictures out and have the child place the pictures into the shape of a rainbow.

Materials Needed:

Paper and something to write with (pen or pencil)
OR Camera (and a computer/printer if you would like to print the pictures out)

Can’t go outside?
1. Have your child search your house or apartment for different colored objects

Have your child think of different colored foods and make a rainbow snack (listen to this song by the Swingset Mamas for inspiration)

Materials Needed:

Foods that represent different colors of the rainbow such as strawberries, apples, banana, lemons, limes, yellow squash, peppers (red, green and yellow), celery, carrots, lettuce, blueberries, grapes (green and red), watermelon, cheese, fruit punch, jello, juices (orange, grape, tomato)

Bringing along older kids (1st grade +)?

You can have your older children do this as a science project. Once home, they can identify the various flowers, leaves, or other items they have found in nature.

Grade Level: Pre-K- 4

Age Level: