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Before I dive in, I wanted to share a bit about the company of this beautiful toy.
Grimms Spiel und Holz Design is a sustainable wood German manufacturer located at the foot of the Swabian Alb. They produce beautiful natural, high-quality, safe toys from alder, linden, beech, and maple wood. Each toy is uniquely hand-made with its unique footprint from nature.
When designing their toys, they say they are guided by the principles of Waldorf education and other reform pedagogical approaches such as Montessori.
At first, I’d just hand it to them, let them explore, and let them come up with ways to interact with it. You’ll probably be surprised – because they will possibly come up with the idea that you would not have ever thought of. I remember one of their first reactions was to use it as a phone. That is the beauty of open-ended toys.
And if they need a little nudge to get their imagination flying, show them pictures of other ways other children have come up with playing with it. For me, looking at other people’s creations has inspired me to let go and have lots of fun.
You’ll now see there are soooo many things you can do. Trust me. Depending on your child’s age, you will find some things are more age-appropriate than others. Here would be my suggestion seeing how my children have played with it.
If your child is little, around 1, let them explore with the pieces, the colors, grabbing them and seeing what sound they make.
Around 2, when they can start stacking or placing objects in a line, I would then go for the floor constructions – like the tunnel – or even the basic stacking tower. Color matching and sorting activities are excellent for 2-year-olds. And even if they can’t create them for themselves at this stage, they love the animals.
At 3, my children loved to make-believe with the rainbow and played with small worlds. They also ventured into more complex designs, and the ball runs.
When their fine motor skills and balancing are better, go for the more demanding and challenging creations.
What also worked for me was to show them pictures of ideas and build together the one that has grasped their attention. They were then motivated and wanted to make it themselves. After that, they would usually explore and create other things.
So let’s get started with some ideas 
A great way to start with them is with floor constructions. It is easier than stacking and a great way to get them to play with the rainbow.
This is probably the easiest thing to do, and it can keep them entertained for hours. We sometimes also pair it with the semicircles as my son pretends they are doors and gates.
I believe this may be the easiest next step. There are so many ways to place the arches on the floor! Place them in line, curve the tunnel, criss-cross them.
These are an excellent way to start. It is more about positioning and care than balancing (that will happen with the vertical designs.
What a creative and fun way to play with the rainbow! I would have never come up with this idea, but I came across this Instagram account @the.way.we.play in 2018, which blew us away. Recreating her animals was what started getting my daughter engaged with the rainbow. We’ve recreated some of her animals here:
And after recreating hers, we started to imagine and create animals ourselves. I have to admit that I am particularly proud of this leopard my daughter came up with this summer (5yo).
And here are some others we’ve had fun creating (either together or by myself )
If you have fun creating animals, you can also create them with the Grimms semicircles, which are incredible. We pair them with Grapat Mandala loose parts and it is so much fun! You can check out this post if you’d like to see other fun creative play ideas.
Next: vertical designs. Now, this is where it starts getting trickier… when you have to get the arches balancing perfectly, so the structure holds up. Some take more attempts than others… and doing them outside when you have to factor in the wind is not always easy 
We’ve managed to build some using all the pieces, but we’ve reached a certain point on others and still have not gotten all of them there. Someday we will.
These are the most complicated creations, challenging but also the most rewarding.
Another fun way to use the rainbow is for color sorting activities and games.
We love to match the Grimms rainbow friends peg dolls or forest cones with the arch colors placing them on top, either straight or spiraling.
You can also match it with the tower if you have the semicircles (which are amazing!!)
And it is fun to create frames for color matching activities with other toys or objects you may have around the house, from categorizing the actual colors (red, green, blue) to broader categories like warm and cold colors. These are just some other ideas that we’ve enjoyed.
Now, this gets fun. Add some balls to the mix, and then movement comes into play. We are very amateurs in this category… and our ball runs are very basic. Easy, lovely, and fun but no works of complex engineering. But we do have fun, though. 
There are impressive ball runs on Instagram and Pinterest that involve so many pieces and elaboration that I really haven’t had the time to do these at home. Here is a Pinterest board with links to many ideas that I think you might enjoy creating more elaborate runs.
As you can see, my daughter thinks she is a mermaid, and my son is a racer.
The rainbow is also great for creating buildings for small world play or building tunnels and bridges when playing with roads. And they just look so lovely 
We love combining the rainbow with other toys. Find out other ideas of how we play with Grimms semicircles, Grapat mandala and the waytoplay road.
Now, this is a fun activity (with adult supervision, of course). It is excellent for them to see and experience symmetry and how an arch is half a circle. The designs are also lovely on the mirror, but they need to be gentle and steady, so I would leave this for an activity with older children.
Finally, the arches can be used as doors to have balls rolling under (like croquet), or if you put a couple together, they can be a perfect target to practice with (sorry I don’t have pictures for these for now – we were just having too much fun playing).
For even more ideas, please check out these accounts and posts that will inspire you with even more for playing with the rainbow:
This is advice directly taken from their website:
TIP: If you want to remove dirt from our products, simply wipe it off with a damp cloth and a little soapy water (if
This is advice directly taken from their website:
TIP: If you want to remove dirt from our products, simply wipe it off with a damp cloth and a little soapy water (if necessary). Please do not place it on the heater when drying; otherwise, cracks may appear in the wood, but allow it to dry at room temperature. Please do not under any circumstances clean our products with disinfectants, hot water, or the like!
You most likely will find the rainbow in wooden toy shops or Waldorf and Montessori style stores. In the biggest nearby city, you might have some that you can go in and explore.
If unfortunately, there aren’t any stores like this nearby, there are plenty of online stores where you’ll be able to find it. Aside from Amazon, I am sharing other web pages I have bought from while living in the UK and Spain (some are local, but others have international deliveries). Additionally, although I haven’t been there, I will also recommend stores from Australia based on IG accounts of people living there (based on their comments and opinions).
I think it is pretty clear that we absolutely love this toy at home. It has been a magical invitation to creativity and hours of open-ended play. It is fantastic to see our children grow and see how their play evolves with it. Sometimes they play with it for days… then it is there on the shelf waiting for some weeks until it is picked up again. But it is always there, in the playroom, waiting for when the inspiration may spark. So, as you can see, it is fabulous.
Hopefully, you’ll have found some new ideas to play with it even more if you have it. If you were considering buying it, hopefully, this will give you ideas to get started. If you might be considering other Grimms toys you can have a look at the ones we have at home here.