RAINY DAY ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS: RAINBOW THROWING GAME

Looking for fun rainy day activities for kids?  Here’s a fun way to work on ball skills, visual motor integration, and color identification with your kiddos!  It’s the perfect indoor activity for a rainy (or snowy!) day and can be played with one child or in a group.

We think this would be a super fun addition to a kids’ birthday or St. Patrick’s Day party!

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
-6 different colored cups – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.  Or, if you don’t have cups in these colors, put a colored construction paper dot on the cups to make one for each color.
-A piece of painter’s tape or anything else to indicate where to stand
-A soft foam ball
-Paper
-Markers or crayons for each cup color

WHAT TO DO:
Set the cups up on a table or counter.  A few feet back (or further back if you have an older child), place the tape on the floor to indicate where to stand.

Tape a piece of paper to the wall nearby and keep the markers handy.

Instruct your child to start by tossing the ball to knock over one of the cups.  Then, she will find the marker that matches the cup she knocked down and draw one of the stripes of the rainbow on the piece of paper on the wall.

Drawing and coloring on a vertical surface like this is a great way to work on establishing a good grasp on writing utensils and also promotes strength and stability in the shoulders and wrists.

Keep playing until all of the cups have been knocked over and your child has drawn the entire rainbow!

HOW TO CHANGE IT UP:
– Teach the order of the colors of a rainbow.  Can the child knock the cups over in that order?
– Vary the distances and sizes of the cups.  Stack up a few cups to make things more interesting!
– Place colored construction paper at various points on the floor to indicate where your child should stand to try to hit each cup (e.g. stand on the red paper to throw at the red cup).  This will challenge the child’s hand-eye coordination a bit more and make the game even more fun!

SKILL AREAS ADDRESSED:  Visual motor integration, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, coordination, motor control, cognitive skills

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Lauren Drobnjak

Lauren Drobnjak is co-author of The Inspired Treehouse blog and a pediatric physical therapist who currently practices in the educational environment. She has been a physical therapist for 18 years, with 17 of those years specifically in pediatrics. Her drive to make a difference in the lives of kids has led her entrepreneurial spirit in the direction of creating opportunities for play-based wellness and child development. She is a busy mama of 3 who thrives on chaos. To come down from the stress, Lauren enjoys exercising like she’s still 20, yoga, chocolate, a great book, browsing Pinterest, and anything crafty!

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