These Rainbow Sun Catchers are easy to make with pipe cleaners and beads, and will add a beautiful pop of colour to a window in your home or classroom. Your kids can make them as a St. Patrick’s Day craft, or any day just to welcome Spring.
Did you see the beaded rainbow art we made the other day?
Well, before we decided on that project, we experimented with our beaded pipe cleaners to see what else we could make.
My favourite creation was this rainbow sun catcher.
It was simple to make, and it looks so pretty when the sunlight shines through the beads.
These rainbows are even easier to make than the ones we made the other day because there’s no glue gun involved.
Young children may need some help shaping their rainbow, but older kids will be able to do this on their own or with very little assistance.
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Supplies:
Instructions:
Gather some pipe cleaners in rainbow colours: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. Technically, “indigo” should be in between the blue and purple, but we only had one shade of purple pipe cleaners.
Have your child thread each pipe cleaner with beads from that colour family, leaving a little space at the end of each pipe cleaner.
Lay your beaded pipe cleaners out in rainbow order. This is a good time to teach your kids the ROY G. BIV mnemonic to remember what order the colours go in.
Twist all of the pipe cleaners together at each end, and then them all a couple of twists to form a spiral that looks like this.
Next, twist each end of the spiral into a cotton ball. No need to glue it in place. It should hold if you push the pipe cleaners in deep enough. Repeat wth another cotton ball at the other end of the spiral.
Now bend your spiral into an arc and stretch your cotton balls a little so they look like puffy clouds.
Finish by tying some fishing line or fine thread to the top of the arc, and hand your rainbow sun catcher in a window.
Wasn’t that fun and easy?
So colourful and cheery for St. Patrick’s Day!
You can find all of our easy St. Patrick’s Day crafts for kids here!
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Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.
