Paper craft

Paper-Strip Rainbow

Starter (level 1 of 5)
20 min
6 steps
Ages 4–9 (a guide, not a rule)

Uses scissors
Uses glue
Adult help suggested

Start Making Print with template

Six colored strips, one longer than the next, make a rainbow that stands up off the page. Each strip is glued down at both ends in the same two spots, so the long red strip arches high and the short purple one stays low inside. Print the template in color, or color the strips yourself, then cut, glue and add two fluffy clouds.

Before you start

You need

Rainbow strip template, printed, 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 in (Letter) or A4). Print in color, or print on white paper and color each strip with its color name.
Sheet of paper for the background, 279 x 216 mm (11 x 8.5 in (Letter) or A4). Light blue looks like the sky; white works too.
Blunt-tip scissors
Glue stick
Ruler (optional)
Crayons, if you color the strips yourself

Decorating (optional): Color the strips red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple if you printed in black and white. Draw raindrops or a sun on the page.

No rainbow strip template, printed? No printer? Cut strips 2 cm (3/4 in) wide from colored paper: 19, 18, 17, 16, 15 and 14 cm long. Tear the clouds out of white paper instead of cutting them: fluffy edges look great.

For the grown-up: Help with cutting the long, straight strips and the bumpy cloud edges. An adult can cut the pieces ahead of time for very young children.

Use blunt-tip scissors and cut away from your fingers.

How to place the paper before the first step — **Your paper:** Print the template at 100% and lay it printed side up. Each strip is a little shorter than the one before.

Cut: a thick solid line with scissors.
Glue: a yellow area marked "glue".

Step by step

Each step shows what to do (left) and how it should look after (right).

Do this

Result

Step 1 of 6 Cut Cut out the six strips and the two clouds on the solid lines.
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Result

Step 2 of 6 Glue Rub glue on one end of the red strip. Press that end on the page, left of the middle. (Now the background page lies on the table, seen from the front. The cut pieces wait at the top, shown smaller.)
Do this

Result

Step 3 of 6 Glue Bend the red strip up into an arch. Glue its other end down 10 cm (4 in) from the first end.
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Result

Step 4 of 6 Glue Glue the orange strip the same way, with its ends on top of the red ends. It makes a smaller arch inside.
Do this

Result

Step 5 of 6 Glue Add the yellow, green, blue and purple strips the same way, each one inside the last.
Do this

Result

Step 6 of 6 Glue Rub glue on the back of each cloud and press it over the glued ends. Your rainbow is ready!

A 3D paper rainbow on light blue paper: six arches from red on the outside to purple on the inside, with a white paper cloud at each end.

You made it!

Yours may look a little different. That is part of making things by hand.

Print the steps

Template

Print the template at 100% (Actual size), not "Fit to page". Then measure the check bar with a ruler: it must be 5 cm (2 in) long.

Six rainbow strips and two clouds · 186 × 200 mm. Strips are 20 mm wide and 190 to 140 mm long; the glue boxes at each end are 15 mm. Print at 100%.

Print the template

If something goes wrong

An arch flattens or tips over.

Press each glued end flat for a few seconds, and keep all the ends in the same two spots.

The arches cross each other.

Glue them in order from the longest (red) to the shortest (purple), each one on top of the last.

The rainbow is too flat.

Glue the ends a little closer together so the strips bend up higher.

Helpful hints

Line up the glued ends neatly on top of each other.
Glue the long red strip first: it sets where the ends go.
A ruler helps you find 10 cm (4 in), but a little more or less still works.

An original PlayOwl project.