Perler Bead Rainbow Craft

This perler bead rainbow will help kids develop fine motor skills, patience and artistic design while making a cute craft that’s fun and colorful!

When it comes to incorporating fun craft projects at home with the kids, STEM activities are the best way for kids to learn a variety of skills.

Not only can kids get creative in art and design, they can boost their fine motor skills and engineering skills to make a colorful rainbow. Making a perler bead rainbow is so fun that your kids might not even realize that it’s a STEM activity. 

Win win!

This perler bead project is great to expand on as well. Incorporate other perler bead projects (like this Pooh Perler Bead Keychain), or simply turn this into a keychain to gift to someone in the family.

Kids will love making this perler bead rainbow and it gives you a great opportunity to teach color theory, spectrum and visible light at the same time.  Such a valuable learning opportunity for kids of all ages!

What are STEM activities?

A STEM activity is an activity for kids that includes the areas of science, technology,  engineering and math (STEM).

Those four elements are the cornerstone for many of today’s careers. STEM activities help children learn and build on a foundation that encourages creative and critical thinking skills.

When used at younger ages, STEM activities can include things that focus on design patterns, counting, sorting and problem solving. This perler bead rainbow craft covers several topics:

• Creative design process
• Following a pattern
• Mathematics – counting to achieve the final pattern
• Using the right items for the design
• How to organize effectively

I love incorporating STEM activities at home with the kids because it provides us the opportunity to add an educational element to our lessons. Don’t limit STEM activities to a specific season – instead, incorporate them throughout the year.

Some kids might gravitate to rainbows in the winter.   That’s OK!   You want to do what makes them perfectly happy  (and willing to learn!)

This perler bead rainbow is a good accompaniment to a unit study on rainbows and study of the light spectrum.

Science:  What is a rainbow? How does refraction work to make a rainbow?  Why do the colors of the rainbow always appear in the same order? Why do rainbows appear to be a half circle?

Tech:  Where do perler beads come from? How are they made and sorted?

Engineering:  Before they get started, kids will need to look and study the design, making plans before the execute the design with the first bead color. Reading diagrams and following directions is essential!

Art:  Create your own rainbow using perler beads.

Math:  Count the beads as you are designing your rainbow. Record the number of beads you used for each color. Graph the outcome (extra) — great for kids who are in 1st grade – 3rd grade.

Design and Create your Perler Bead Rainbow!

These are the things you will need to make this perler bead rainbow.

(Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links for items at no additional charge to you.)

• Perler beads
• Wax paper
• Circle bead pegboard
• Iron

First, gather your beads and count out each color required:

• 10 red
• 11 purple
• 16 blue
• 17 green
• 22 yellow
• 23 orange
• 28 pink
• 74 white

After the colors have been counted, your kids will need to determine the placement for the beads on the circle bead tray. Your little ones might take a bit longer to achieve this than the older kids. 

Save the clouds for the end — design as desired. Then lay your wax paper atop your rainbow and gently press with a warm iron for 30-35 seconds.  Avoid over-pressing because the beads will indeed melt (we found this out the hard way!)

Allow the wax paper to cool. Then flip the beads and gently iron the other side (20-30 seconds). Feel free to use a hook to hang the rainbow on a window or even add a keychain.