Rainbow Writing Lesson Plan for Kindergarten

Kindergartners have a lot of new skills to learn and practice.​​Â  Writing the alphabet and spelling words are two of the top tasks that require creativity and repetition in order for students to master. Thats where Rainbow Writing comes in. Its a fun, easy, and low-prep activity that can be done in class or assigned as homework. Heres how it works as well as how it can help your emergent writers. How Rainbow Writing Works First, you need to choose about 10-15 high-frequency sight words that are already familiar to your students.Next, make a handout on simple handwriting paper. Write each of your chosen words on the paper, one word per line. Write the letters as neatly and large as possible. Make copies of this handout.Alternatively, for older students who can already write and copy words: Write the list on your whiteboard and have the students write the words down (one per line) onto handwriting paper.To complete the Rainbow Words assignment, each student needs a piece of writing paper and 3-5 crayons (each of a different color). The student then writes over the original word in each of the crayon colors. Its similar to tracing but adds a colorful visual twist.For assessment, look for your students to mimic the original neat handwriting as closely as possible. Variations of Rainbow Writing There are a few variations of this activity. The one listed above is the most basic variation that is great for introducing words. A second variation (once students get used to tracing over a word with crayons), is for students to take a die and roll it to see how many colors they need to trace over the listed word. For example, if a child was to roll a five on the die, that would mean that they would have to choose five different colors to write over each word listed on their paper (ex. the word is and the child could use a blue, red, yellow, orange, and purple crayon to trace over the word). Another variation of the Rainbow Writing activity is for a student to choose three color crayons and write next to the listed word three times with three different colored crayons (there is no tracing in this method). This is a little bit more complex and is usually for students who have experience writing or are in an older grade. How Can it Help Emergent Writers? Rainbow Writing helps emergent writers because they are continually forming letters over and over again. Not only does it help them learn how to write but it also helps them learn how to spell the word correctly. If you have any students who are visual-spatial, kinesthetic or tactile learners then this activity is perfect for them.