Little hands

Paper Plate Rainbow

A cheerful rainbow made from a paper plate, scrunched tissue and fluffy cotton wool clouds. Perfect for little hands on a rainy day.

This is a lovely first craft for toddlers and preschoolers. There’s no wrong way to do it, and the scrunching is brilliant for little fingers.

Written for parents, carers and teachers. Read the steps through first, then let the little ones take the lead.

Safety notes for grown-ups

A grown-up should cut the plate.
Supervise young children with small pieces of tissue and cotton wool, as they're a choking hazard.
Use washable, non-toxic glue.

Print it on A4 paper or card. It's free for personal and classroom use.

Cut the plate in half
A grown-up cuts the paper plate in half. Each half makes one rainbow, so there's one for a friend too!
Draw the stripes
Draw curvy lines across the plate to make six stripes. They don't need to be neat.
Scrunch the tissue
Tear tissue paper into small squares and scrunch each one into a little ball. This is the best bit, so take your time!
Stick the colours
Spread glue on one stripe at a time and press the tissue balls on. Red on the outside, then orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.
Add fluffy clouds
Pull the cotton wool apart so it's fluffy, then glue a cloud at each end of the rainbow.