This month I am having inordinate amounts of fun creating an exciting new Discovery Box called the Rainbow Box.

I love rainbows! The idea behind this box is to provide a really open-ended simple and beautiful resource to excite children’s curiosity and imagination. Because the components are so simple, they can become anything the child can imagine them to be.

   

Like many of my other Boxes, this one has a toolkit to facilitate exploration play. I have sourced a few sets of rainbow coloured bags, bowls, eggcups, measuring cups and spoons, and combined them with an array of rainbow coloured felt balls, flowers, eggs and stars as well as glass pebbles, wooden beads and blocks.

I couldn’t resist making a set of colourful felt cupcakes too.

I found that these objects led the children on voyages of sorting, counting, pattern and transient art making, recipe creating, cake/ice cream shop arranging and of course colour recognition as well as colour matching and artistic exploration.

Every time I bring this Box out, different children find different games to play with it!

   

I noticed that the youngest children (2 and under) derive masses of simple sensory pleasure from feeling and touching the felt objects, while the older ones (4 to 7) love creating imaginative games in which the felt, glass and wooden shapes become cakes, ice creams, sweets and creatures.

This little girl loved experimenting with different colour combinations.