Rainbow Art for Kids with Bubble Wrap (Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds)

Kids love rolling paint on bubble wrap, so we invited them to turn them into rainbow art. Not only did they get their own rainbow to take home, but we were able to save the painted bubble wrap to display in front of our classroom window!

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Whenever bubble wrap is donated to us, we are as giddy as a kid on Christmas morning. The bigger the bubbles, the better! We love to paint on bubble wrap, especially when using a roller. I knew this would be a good art activity for our 2 year olds.

I placed individual bowls of paint, one for each color of the rainbow. As I usually do with our 2 year olds, I removed the chairs from the table so they could just walk up and get to work, moving around the table to reach all areas of the bubble wrap.

They rolled the paint on the bubble wrap, over and over again. At one point, we had almost all 10 children at the table at once.

I then handed them a piece of paper and showed them how to pat it on top of the painted bubble wrap.

My favorite part of these kinds of activities is watching their faces when they lift the paper and see the print. There are always those who want to do this process over and over again, delighted with the result each time.

Eventually almost every part of the bubble wrap was covered in paint.

Simple rainbows made by 2 year olds.

I hadn't intended on displaying the bubble wrap itself, but I loved how it looked afterwards and decided to hang it in our classroom window.

The next day, the 3 year olds noticed the rainbow bubble wrap in the window and said they'd like to try it, too. Thank goodness I was given 2 large pieces!
Look for more ways to explore rainbows?

Bubble wrap on the easel with rollers. You can see this and other easel activities here.

Bubble Wrap Rainbows Using Rolling Pins

Here are more ideas from my blogging friends:

40 Fantastic Rainbow Activities for Kids (The Imagination Tree)
Creating a Lego Rainbow (Kids Activities Blog)
Rainbow Fine Motor Play (Fun-a-Day)
Montessori-Inspired Rainbow Activities (Living Montessori Now)

Rainbow products available from Amazon:

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