How to using food coloring on marshmallows to create a rainbow craft
If you are like my family, then you are looking for anything that is easy to entertain your children. Currently, I am home with three children under 5 and let’s just say we are looking for fun and entertaining activities every day.
This easy rainbow craft is so much fun and can probably be made with supplies you already have at home. My toddlers were very engaged in making this rainbow.
And it didn’t hurt that they got to eat some marshmallows in the process!
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Supplies needed for Rainbow Craft
-Marshmallow (white or colored)
-Cardboard
-Sharpie or Pencil
-Glue
Optional:
-Food coloring
How to Dye Marshmallows for Rainbow Craft
If you only have small white marshmallows, you will want to dye them with food coloring. We had a mix of the tropical marshmallows and white marshmallows that needed to be dyed for our easy rainbow craft.
Place the number of marshmallows you think you will need for each color in a plastic bag. Add only a few drops of food coloring and about a tablespoon of water.
Zip the bag closed and move the marshmallows around. My toddlers loved seeing the marshmallows change colors.
Once you have made your colored marshmallows, then empty the bag and have dry on paper towels. I recommend having several layers of paper towels on your counter.
Marshmallow Dying Tip:
You can use fewer bags if you make the colors in the order of the rainbow. Start with red, dump out red marshmallows. Then place new white marshmallows in the bag and just add two drops of yellow.
Repeat for all the colors of the rainbow going in ROYGBIV order!
Your children not only have fun seeing the marshmallows change colors, but they also will learn about color mixing.
If want to make this even more educational, you could read one of my favorite color mixing books as well!
Or you could also what my favorite color mixing video! Preschoolers and young children absolutely love this video!
Extra Color Theory Teaching Resources for Children
–Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh
–Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lionni
–Monsters Love Colors by Mike Austin
Pin for Later!
How To Make an Easy Rainbow Craft
1. As marshmallows are drying, cut a rainbow arc shape out of cardboard. I took apart a cracker box. The back of the rainbow is the outside part box.
2. Once marshmallows are dry enough, have children sort them by colors. Sorting is a great activity in itself for preschoolers!
3. Draw rainbow lines and clouds if you want. Decide how many colors will be in your rainbow. Draw that many arced lines.
4. Since my kids are preschool-aged, I decided to put the glue down for them. This also helped because I worked in sections.
Only put glue down for one color at a time. My daughter was so proud when she would finish one of the colors.
If you have elementary-aged children, then they should be able to do everything for their rainbow craft themselves (from drawing the rainbow to gluing).
5. Continue gluing and placing marshmallows on the preschool art project until your rainbow is complete!
My preschoolers were so proud of what they created. The only thing is that you have to encourage your children to not eat marshmallows if they have glue on their fingers…
Oh the joys of being a preschooler! Don’t eat the glue!
I promised a small bowl of the fruity marshmallows once they finished their rainbow art project!
When there is a lot of gloom in the world right now, these easy rainbow crafts sure made me smile.
Enjoy spending quality time with your toddlers, preschoolers and elementary-aged children. If you need more ideas then make sure to see what other fun and easy art projects I have done with my family!
Being creative and spending time together is truly what is important.
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Scarlet
Sunday 25th of October 2020
What a super cute edible craft idea for toddlers. Thanks!
Erin
Wednesday 28th of October 2020
Hi Scarlet. Yes, the food colored marshmallows are edible. But if you do choose to glue them on to cardboard, I would make sure that the kids know that they can eat those! ;) The marshmallows will actually dry out a little. We had our rainbow craft in our window for over a month with no problems. Thanks for the kind words.
Heather @ Embracing Chaos with Love
Sunday 22nd of March 2020
Hi Erin, This is such a cute and easy craft to do with kids. My daughter is obsessed with rainbows too so this is perfect! I love how you used things that you could easily find around the house. You could even turn this into a matching activity where you color the rainbow on the cardboard first and they put the colored marshmallows on the matching color. Thanks for the great craft. Love your post! Heather
Erin
Sunday 29th of March 2020
Hi Heather! Great idea about adding a color match portion to this project. There are so many crafts you can do with objects around the house that kids will love. Thanks for the kind words.
Eachael
Saturday 21st of March 2020
I love this idea amd I know a little girl who would love it too. I actually have some stale marshmallows in the cupboard that would be great.
Erin
Saturday 21st of March 2020
Yes. Stale marshmallows worked really well for this easy rainbow craft! They get a little goopy when you are adding food color, but once they dry they really seem to be ready for the craft.
Kimberlie
Friday 20th of March 2020
I would never have thought of dying marshmallows for the rainbow. I'm excited because my 3 year old will love this.
Erin
Friday 20th of March 2020
Hi Kimberlie. The idea came to me after a friend was making dyed pasta noodle necklaces. I think we will be using food coloring a lot to create easy crafts around here in the next couple of weeks!
Ashley
Thursday 19th of March 2020
Such a cute idea! Love it!
Erin
Friday 20th of March 2020
Hi Ashley! I am glad that you love this easy craft for kids. It really was a lot of fun making rainbows.