What are rainbow challenges?

Rainbow challenges are something which seems to be increasingly popular with many childcare setting using these in their settings. Until recently I believed they were something which should be used in schools however they can be easily adapted to be EYFS friendly as the important part is creating the rainbow and the challenges themselves can be anything the key person or room leader feels appropriate. If you’re a setting which follows topics or themes they can be linked to these or if you prefer they could be individual to each child. Rainbow challenges are when each child is given a rainbow, this could be on a display, in a book bag or draw. The practitioners then have a variety of lollipop sticks, one of each colour of the rainbow. A different challenge is then assigned to each colour of the lollipop sticks. These challenges could last a week or two weeks. The children are then encouraged to complete the challenges, once they have completed a task they collect a lollipop stick to add to their rainbow. The main challenge is to complete all the challenges to create a full rainbow of lollipop sticks. 

What are the benefits of rainbow challenges?

Rainbow challenges have the following benefits –

• Motivate children – These are a great way to motivate children to engage in activities that they may not usually like to join in with such as reluctant mark makers or children who like to spend all day in the construction area
• Aid planning – These challenges may be used as the basis for planning and then in the moment planning used alongside this to provide enhancements.
• Positive reinforcement – Works through positive reinforcement and rewarding children for keeping on trying and joining in helping to promote the characteristics of effective learning at the same time too.
• Core Skills – These challenges can often be used to promote core skill sets such as fine motor skills, communication skills, knowledge of self etc…

Some settings find rainbow challenges very successful, others believe this approach is not individual enough to each child. We would love to hear from other settings who have tried this in practice.