Introduction: Show children a prism. (I borrowed one from my local preschool!) If you do not have access to a prism, make your own with beveled glass or a glass of water. Explore and discuss the rainbows that are created.
Game: Color Song (Tune: "Muffin Man")
"If you're wearing RED today,
RED today, RED today,
if you're wearing RED today,
stand up and say 'Hooray!'" (continue substituting colors until all children have been able to participate)
Story: The First Rainbow, by Su Box
Action Song: "Rise and Shine" from "Action Bible Songs" album by Cedarmont Kids
Song: "Old Man Noah Had an Ark" (Tune: "Old MacDonald")
"Old man Noah had an ark, Ee-I-Ee-I-O!
And on this ark he had two frogs, Ee-I-Ee-I-O!
With a ribbit ribbit here, and a ribbit ribbit there,
here a ribbit, there a ribbit, everywhere a ribbit ribbit....
Old man Noah had an ark, Ee-I-Ee-I-O!"
(keep changing the animals...use trumpeting elephants, chattering monkeys, hissing snakes, snapping crocodiles, growling bears, roaring lions, jumping kangaroos, and yawning koalas!)
Prayer and Bible Verse Bracelets:
(Print out, on a brightly-colored sheet of paper, today's verse repeated down the page. Cut between each verse so that you have 10-15 strips, each with the verse printed on it. Ask the children to form a line, and using tape to stick the ends together, wrap a "Bible Verse Bracelet" round each little wrist. Some children do not want to wear it; in that case, hand it to them and tell them to use the verse as a bookmark. The children love these, and come to expect them at each session! The verses also find their way home to parents and siblings, and help to spread the news about the storytime topic.)
Genesis 9:13 "I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth."
Say a short prayer of thanks to God for what His rainbow means to us.
Story: What is the Sun? by Reeve Lindbergh (a second story can be used to fill a longer story hour.)
What Is the Sun?
Discuss how God created all things.
Rainbow fingerplay:
"One day the sun was shining bright (hold up right hand)
But clouds came along, & it was dark as night (move left hand over right hand as if clouds were covering the sun)
The rain began to sprinkle down (wiggle fingers of both hand while moving them downward)
Soon it was raining all over town.
But when the clouds had passed on by (move both hands to the right)
A beautiful rainbow stretched across the sky! (make an arc overhead)
Art: Rainbows
If the weather permits, and it is suitable for your group, take colored chalk outdoors and make giant rainbows on a sidewalk. If the weather doesn't agree, use damp colored chalk on nicely-colored paper to make lovely rainbows. Consider using a very long sheet of butcher paper (or a banquet-table-sized paper tablecloth) and make a giant paper rainbow.
