Pipe-cleaner Rainbows

I was running on empty today. Sometimes I get burned out of having to think of something for us to do. MOST of the time I throw an idea together that takes next to no prep and requires only stuff I currently have in my home. Every once in awhile I get good and plan a week or so of well-thought-out activities, and include what I need in my shopping list. But like I said, MOST of that time we fly by the seat of our pants. This was definitely one of those days.

This is how it went down today. My youngest son comes up to me and says, "Mom, what are we doing today for our preschool activity?"
And I reply, "Hmmm...what are we doing? You know, let me think about it while I do the dishes and then we'll do something really cool."
To which he replies, "Something COOL?!  Grrrrrrrreat!"

Then I'm stuck trying to think of something c-o-o-l.

Well, cool or not, probably not so much but oh well, this is what I came up with while I finished the dishes.

We've got a lot of pipe-cleaners. I figured we probably had some in each color of the rainbow so I told the kids we were going to figure out the best way to fashion a rainbow out of pipe-cleaners. Little did I know that kids don't automatically know which colors go in a rainbow or what order they go in. It's amazing what little pieces of knowledge we take for granted.

So we talked for awhile about what colors are included in the rainbow. Then I let them pick out one pipe-cleaner in each color. I did, in fact, have pipe-cleaners in all the colors; for some, I even had a few different shades to chose from. After that, I let them try and make a rainbow on their own. They had a lot of great ideas! It was fun to watch the wheels turn in their little heads. One son suggested that we needed something to wrap the colors around, so we tried wrapping the colors around a core of other pipe-cleaners. Then we tried wrapping them around a craft stick. Both ideas were fun and gave us a lot of practice using all our finger muscles--dexterity and all that. Wrapping pipe-cleaners actually isn't all that intuitive. Another son put all the colors in this hands and bent them like a rainbow and commented that we just needed something to hold them all together. So we used white pipe-cleaners at the base of each side, wrapping them around and around to look just like little clouds. That one looks the most like a real rainbow, but all three methods were excellent sources for solidifying the colors of the rainbow and their order in one's mind.

When we were done I asked the kids if they had had fun, and if it was a "cool" activity. My oldest said, "Yes, it was pretty cool. But usually you should have a treat for preschool activities. That makes them the coolest."
"Yeah. That's the coolest, mom. The coolest!" added my younger son.

Thanks kids. So, I've had my review for the day, and I know what I need to work on.
Cool = treats.
Got it.