The Number Seven: The Rainbow

To let the child meet seven first as a quality living in the world, in the rainbow, before it ever becomes a numeral on a page.

When a number has a face and a story, counting becomes recognition rather than memorization.

Littles (3–4): the story, the verse, and counting real things with touch. No numerals yet.

Olders (5–7): the full sequence: story, finding seven in the world, movement, and writing the numeral 7 large and beautiful.

• Beeswax crayons
• Large unlined paper
• A basket of natural counters: acorns, stones, shells, or beans
• Watercolors for the story picture

Red and orange, yellow, green,
Blue and indigo between,
Violet last, the bow is done,
Seven colors, every one.

The Rainbow's Seven Colors.

Long ago, the story goes, the colors of the world quarreled. Red said, "I am the strongest." Yellow said, "I am the brightest." Blue said, "I am the deepest." Each one wanted to be the most important.

They shouted and argued until the sky grew dark and a great storm came. Thunder rolled and rain poured down, and the colors were frightened and huddled close together.

When the storm passed, the Sun came out and spoke to them. "Each of you is beautiful," she said, "but you are most beautiful together. Hold hands, and I will show you."

So the colors held hands across the sky in a great bow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Seven of them, side by side, and the bow they made was more beautiful than any one of them alone.

Down in the meadow a little boy in a yellow raincoat looked up and gasped. And on a leaf beside him sat a ladybug with seven spots, as if she too had come to count the colors.

Look for rainbows after rain, in a garden hose spray on a sunny day, or through a glass prism on the windowsill. Name the seven colors in order.

Count seven days in the week, and give each day its color as on the day ribbon at the top of this page. Find a seven-spot ladybug in the garden.

Make a rainbow walk: lay seven colored scarves or silks in a curve and walk along them, naming each one. Or sing the days of the week while stepping seven steps forward and seven back.

Paint or draw the story picture first. Then, on a fresh page, write the numeral 7 very large with a crayon, slowly, saying “seven” as you go. Beside it draw seven of something from the story.

Older children can also write the word SEVEN beneath, and lay out 7 counters in different arrangements to see how many ways seven can be made.

For the parent:

Seven is a number of completion through stages: seven days of creation, seven colors of light, the seven classical planets that name our weekdays. For the child it carries a feeling of a full, beautiful sequence that returns again and again.

For the child, keep it simple:

Seven is the rainbow and the week. Seven colors hold hands to make the bow, and seven days hold hands to make the week.

Seven colors in the sky,
Seven days go walking by,
Hand in hand they make the bow,
Seven, seven, now I know.

• Paint a wet-on-wet rainbow with the three primary colors and watch the others appear.
• Connect to the Weekdays and Planets lesson.
• Find seven of something on a nature walk: seven stones, seven leaves.
• Learn the rainbow order with a chant.
• Return to One, The Sun and count up through every number lesson in order.

Seven is the first number children often cannot see at a glance or count on one hand. Let it be a story and a song before it is a sum.