One school project I was asked to devise, centred around a Rainbow Carnival in which each of seven year groups in the school were to represent one colour from the rainbow in song, dance and other arty stuff, and then come together for a rainbow item. There was much in the way of story-telling and composing and learning dances and songs from different countries (each class had also chosen a country to represent their colour), and one element of the process was this Rainbow Song.

Each class considered what their colour meant to them, and I used their ideas in the lyrics to the song. In the final performance, the class sang their verse, and their element of the chorus and then performed other items linked to their colour and their country.

So this song was never performed from beginning to end non-stop and was not really designed for that purpose. However, I’ve created one long video for the whole song here, with the rainbow verse at the end. If you want to focus on a particular colour, the timings for the start of each verse are given.

The chorus is a set of seven repeating patterns designed to get the children of the entire school singing together in parts. One way of using the chorus is to introduce the repeating pattern individually at the end of that colour’s verse, and not bring the whole thing together until the end. On the video, there are two versions of the chorus, one where each pattern is introduced separately, before being joined together (at the very beginning of the video), and the other where they are introduced one at a time, but continue while the others join in (starts at 6’03”).

I have used this song a few times since that first project and sometimes the children have created new lyrics as the colours mean something different to them. In one version of the song, we started with the rainbow verse, but then the children wanted to create new verses about clouds, rain, storms and sunshine – the elements of the weather that lead to rainbows, so the colour verses disappeared altogether.

The original set of verses are set out below. You can see from the words what each year group’s focus was. The school had already decided on “purple” rather than “violet” when I arrived on the scene, so that was what I went with, and their thoughts turned to royalty, clergy and sleeping! Other schools have not liked the use of purple and have changed all those references to violet in the song. The year group who ended up with indigo were not particularly happy as they didn’t really know what that colour was let along what it represented, so we decided to use that mystery as a positive – it was a magical colour that inspired creativity and imagination, simply because most people really did not know much about it.

Red (starts at 0'59")
Blood pumping, 
Heart drumming, 
Love soaring. 
Red for danger, 
Red for warning. 
Blood pumping, 
Heart drumming, 
Love soaring. 
Without red the world would be a duller, duller place: 
No love, no thrills, no life. 
Red is the best!     

Orange (starts at 1'43")
Juice spurting, 
Carrots crunching, 
Balloons popping. 
Orange for energy, 
Orange for joy. 
Juice spurting, 
Carrots crunching, 
Balloons popping. 
Without orange the world would be a duller, duller place: 
No zest, no fun, no zing, 
Orange is the best!

Yellow (starts at 2'26")
Sun shining, 
Flames crackling, 
Flowers blooming. 
Yellow for cosy, 
Yellow for Spring. 
Sun shining, 
Flames crackling, 
Flowers blooming. 
Without yellow the world would be a duller, duller place: 
No growth, no light, no warmth, 
Yellow is the best!   

Green (starts at 3'09")
Leaves fluttering, 
Grass surging, 
Fresh air wafting. 
Green for natural, 
Green for peaceful. 
Leaves fluttering, 
Grass surging, 
Fresh air wafting. 
Without green the world would be a duller, duller place: 
No trees, no calm, no breath, 
Green is the best!   

Blue (starts at 3'52")
Water swirling, 
Ocean surging, 
Shower splashing. 
Blue for drinking, 
Blue for swimming. 
Water swirling, 
Ocean surging, 
Shower splashing. 
Without blue the world would be a duller, duller place: 
No rain, no sky, no stream, 
Blue is the best!     

Indigo (starts at 4'36")
Mysteries puzzling, 
Thoughts evolving, 
Vision creating. 
Indigo for ideas, 
Indigo for secrets. 
Mysteries puzzling, 
Thoughts evolving, 
Vision creating. 
Without indigo the world would be a duller, duller place. 
No spirit, no soul, no inspiration, 
Indigo is best!!     

Purple (starts at 5'20". Violet can be substituted, if you prefer!))
Kings parading, 
Night sky soothing, 
Incense tingling. 
Purple for power, 
Purple for sleeping. 
Kings parading, 
Night sky soothing, 
Incense tingling. 
Without purple the world would be a duller, duller place. 
No rest, no pomp, no dreams, 
Purple is the best!     

Rainbow (starts at 7'02")
Colours blending, 
Each one shimmering, 
Storm clouds cheering. 
Rainbow for harmony, 
Rainbow for variety. 
Colours blending, 
Each one shimmering, 
Storm clouds cheering. 
Without the rainbow, the world would be a duller, duller place: 
No love, no sky, no warmth, no zing, no dreams, no calm, no magic spirit, 
Rainbow is best.