Rainbows Day 5 -What Makes a Rainbow

What Makes a Rainbow

Discuss: A rainbow needs light and water for us to see it. Show a simple demonstration of how we bend light by using a straight straw and a clear cup that is half filled with water. Even though the straw is straight, it looks bent when we put it into the water. That is just the light bending. When we bend light, it is called "refraction." Let's bend some more light.  Show the kids a prism, go outside and used a prism to create a rainbow on a piece of white paper. Why do we see rainbows when it rains? The raindrops are like a tiny prism, bending the light that comes from the sun. So we need both sun (light) and rain (prism) at the same time to make a rainbow in the sky. Let's do a simple demonstration to see how the sun and water make a rainbow.  We'll use the hose in the backyard to make a rainbow.  Make sure the sun is behind us and the water is in front of us.

We did experiments from the “Magic School Bus The Mysteries of Rainbow Science Club Kit”.

Read: What Is a Rainbow? By Chris Arvetis and Carole Palmer

Comprehension Questions:

1. What makes a rainbow? Light and water

Fruit Loop Bagel Breakfast

Materials:

• Plain Bagels
• Cream Cheese
• Fruit Loops

Directions:

1. spread cream cheese on the bagel
2. place the fruit loops in the shape of a rainbow

Tissue Paper Rainbow

Materials:

• colors of tissue papers
• pencil with a full eraser
• school glue
• white cardstock with an outline of a rainbow on it
• markers or crayons
  

Directions:

1. Have the children use the markers or crayons to color in the colors they want their rainbow to look like.
2. Cut the tissue into 1 inch squares.
3. Pour some school glue onto a tray or plate.
4. Have your child take one piece of tissue, and show them how to center (approximately!) the eraser onto it.
5. Wrap the tissue up around the pencil. 
   
6. Dip into the glue.
   
7. Hold onto the edges of the tissue, and press the glue tipped end onto the paper, matching up the color from your picture. Slide the pencil out.

Rainbow in a Box

Discuss: Like water drops in falling rain, the CD separates white light into all the colors that make up the rainbow. The colors you see reflecting from a CD are interference colors, like the shifting colors you see on a soap bubble or an oil spill. You can think of light as as being made up of waves-like the waves in the ocean. When light waves reflect off the ridges on your CD, they overlap and interfere with each other. Sometimes the waves add together to make a rainbow.

Materials:

• CD
• Box
• Flashlight

Directions:

1. Shine a flashlight on an old CD in the bottom of a box turned on it's side.
2. Turn off the lights, and move the flashlight across the CD to make the rainbows dance.

Rainbow Addition

Materials:

• Paper
• Pen
• Construction paper

Directions:

1. Draw an outline of a rainbow on the paper.
2. Write addition combinations on the blank rainbow. (make sure they are spaced out quite a bit)
3. Cut the construction paper into rectangles small enough to cover one of the combinations.
4. Write the answers to the top row of combinations on the red rectangles.
5. Next row answers are on the orange rectangles. And so on.
6. Child will look at the combination and find the answer in the colored pieces and place it over the combination. At the end there should be a completed colored rainbow.

I modified the one for A. to counting dots on the white paper and finding the correct number on the colored pieces.

And I modified the tots to matching colors.

Eat the Rainbow

Discuss:

Talk about what different colors of the rainbow that we can eat to be healthy. Fruits and Vegies Then make a chart with the kids that have all of the foods that they suggested written on it.

Materials:

• Posterboard
• Markers of crayons
• Strawberries
• Cantaloupe
• Banana
• Pear
• Blueberries
• Red Grapes
• Kabob Skewers

Directions:

1. Make a rainbow on a plate or platter with different fruits.

RED – Strawberries
ORANGE – Cantaloupe
YELLOW – Banana
GREEN – Pear
BLUE – Blueberries
VIOLET – Red grapes

    2. Let the children use the kabob sticks to make their rainbow fruit kabobs.

Read: I can eat a Rainbow by Annabel Karmel while they eat

Make a REAL Rainbow

Read: A Rainbow of My Own by Don Freeman

Discuss: Rainbows appear wherever sunlight falls on water or glass.  We used the Rainbow Diagram here to help us with this experiment.

Materials:

• Glass of water
• Dark kitchen
• White Paper
• Masking Tape
• Flashlight

Directions:

1. Fill a glass of water (almost to the top) and place it at the very edge of the counter in a VERY dark kitchen or bathroom.
2. Place a sheet of plain white paper on the floor a few inches away from the counter.
3. Put two pieces of masking tape over the front of a flashlight so that the light comes out of a slit about 1/8 inch wide.
4. Shine this light across and down into the water as shown in the figure. When a narrow beam of light is passed through a glass of water, a spectrum can be seen on a white sheet of paper.
5. Can you see a small rainbow on the white paper? If not, move the flashlight around a little until you achieve the best results.

Rainbow Symmetry

Discuss: A line of symmetry divides a shape into two identical parts. In some cases, as with a rainbow, you'll find one line of symmetry down the middle. In other cases, there is more than one, like with eight sections of an orange. So if we paint a rainbow on one side of the paper and then fold it in half it should appear the same on both sides forming a symmetrical rainbow.

Materials:

• Cardstock folded in half
• Paint for all the colors of the rainbow

Directions:

1. Fold the paper in half and open.
   
2. Have the kids how to paint half a rainbow on one half of the paper in the right order. 
   
3. Fold the paper over and press gently.
4. Open again to see your rainbow print. 
   

Rainbow Celebration Cake

Cake Materials:

• White cake (2 boxes)
• 9 in. cake pan
• Red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple GEL food coloring.

Cake Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Spray 9” cake pans. Make the 2 cakes according to the directions.
2. Divide the batter into 6 bowls (about 1 1/2 cups each.
3. Then whisk 2 drops of the appropriate food color into each bowl. Pour into the pans and bake for 12 minutes each.
4. When you remove them from the oven, let them rest on the cooling rack, in the pan, for ten minutes. Then flip, cover, and stash them in the fridge to cool quickly.

Frosting Materials:

• 2 Cups shortening
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• ½ cup water
• 2 lbs. Powdered sugar

Frosting Directions:

1. In large bowl, cream shortening with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add water and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use.
2. This icing can be stored 2 weeks. rewhip before using.

I added sugar sprinkles in the shape of a rainbow to it too.

Rainbows Day 4 -Double Rainbows

Double Rainbows

Discuss: In a "primary rainbow", the arc shows red on the outer part, and violet on the inside. This rainbow is caused by light being refracted while entering a droplet of water, then reflected inside on the back of the droplet and refracted again when leaving it. In a double rainbow, a second arc is seen outside the primary arc, and has the order of its colors reversed, red facing toward the other one, in both rainbows. This second rainbow is caused by light reflecting twice inside water droplets. The second arc is also lighter than the first one.

Read: All the Colors of the Rainbow by Allan Fowler

Comprehension Questions:

1. What is the order of the colors in a rainbow? Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple
2. What is the order of the colors in the double rainbow on the top? Purple, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Red
3. Have the children draw a double rainbow (top rainbow lighter and in opposite order)

Rainbow Pancake Breakfast

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• food coloring

Directions:

1. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.
2. Lightly beat the eggs with the buttermilk, milk and melted butter.
3. Just before you are ready to make the pancakes, add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients all at once, stirring just long enough to blend. The batter should be slightly lumpy.
4. Separate the batter into 6 bowls and added food coloring to make the colors of the rainbow.
5. Heat a lightly greased griddle or heavy skillet over medium-high heat (375 degrees on an electric griddle).
6. Pour 1/4 cup batter per pancake onto the griddle or skillet, spacing the pancakes apart so they do not run together.
7. When bubbles appear on the surface of the pancakes and the undersides are lightly browned, turn and cook for about 2 minutes longer, until lightly browned on the bottom.

A said "Look, I made a flower" (so girly)!

Hand Print Rainbow

Materials:

• Paint (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple)
• Poster board

Directions:

1. Cut the poster board in the shape of a semi-circle.
2. Have the children put their purple hand prints along the bottom curve.
3. Then blue hand prints over the purple prints (it's okay if it overlaps a bit)
4. Then green, yellow, orange, and red hand prints

Blow It Up

Discuss: Baking soda and the vinegar create an ACID-BASE reaction. When combined/mixed they create a gas - carbon dioxide. Gasses need room to spread out, so the carbon dioxide gas fills the bottle and then moves into the balloon inflating it. A gas can float in the air but we usually can't see it.

Materials:

• baking soda
• vinegar
• plastic bottle
• 6 balloons (one of each color)
• funnels

Directions:

1. Using your funnel pour vinegar into your bottle. You only need to fill about 1/3 of the bottle.
2. Using another (dry) funnel pour baking soda into your balloon. Fill the balloon approx. 1/2 way.
3. Cover the top of the bottle with you balloon. Make sure you don't let the baking soda spill into the bottle yet.
4. When ready, lift your balloon and let the baking soda fall into the vinegar.
5. Watch as the mixture fizzes, bubbles & expands your balloon!

Measure a Rainbow

Materials:

• Construction Paper in colors of the rainbow
  
• Scissors
  
• Stapler
  

Directions:

1. Measure and cut the construction paper into 1” wide strips. Measure and cut each of the strips into the following lengths:

•red ~ 10"
•orange ~ 9”
•yellow ~ 8”
•green ~ 7”
•blue ~ 6”
•purple ~ 5” 

2. Stack all of the strips together in the rainbow order with red on top. Align and staple the aligned end together.

3. Bend and align the other end and staple to form a rainbow!! And that’s it…a fun rainbow with a little bit of measuring practice as a bonus!

Rainbow Spaghetti Lunch

Ingredients:

• Spaghetti
• Oil
• Food Coloring
• Tomatoes
• Carrots
• Croutons
• Lettuce
• Rasins
• Shredded Cabbage

Directions:

1. Cook a small pot of spaghetti and drained it and tossed it in a couple of teaspoons of oil.
2. Divided it into 6 bowls and added a some liquid food coloring to each one, and stirred it through.
3. Serve with a salad make of
   RED – Tomatoes
   ORANGE – Carrots
   YELLOW – Croutons
   GREEN – Lettuce
   BLUE – Raisins
   VIOLET – Shredded Cabbage

Rainbow Wind Catcher

Materials:

• paper plates
• paint
• glue sticks
• a stapler
• crepe paper

Directions:

1. cut paper plates in half.
2. paint a rainbow on the back sides, both halves. 
   
3. after they were dry, use a glue stick to add the streamers.
4. cut the streamers in half long wise so they measure about 1in. X 10in.
5. in theory you would add the color of streamer under the color of paint.
6. glue streamers to the inside of both halves of the plates.
7. staple the two plates together.
8. tie a knot in a loop of yarn and then stapled it in when putting the plates together.

Crayon Melting Canvas

Discuss: Why does wax melt? Energy travels from the heated area to the wax, a solid. When the energy hits the wax molecules, it causes them to speed up, resulting in liquid. As the heat is removed, the wax molecules begin to slow down and heat the air around them. As the molecules lose energy they slowly stop moving as much and become a solid again.

Materials:

• 11x14 canvas
• hot glue gun & glue stick
• hair dryer
• lots of crayons
• newspaper

Discussion:

1. Pick out the colors you want to use and line them up until you run out of space.
   
2. Using a glue gun, make a line of glue across the crayons (if you want a certain part showing, like the label, be careful to put the glue on the opposite side). Quickly place onto canvas in a line, as shown below, with tips facing down. 
   
3. Line your floor with newspaper, place the canvas against the wall, and start blow drying.
   
4. Aim the heat right at the middle to lower area of the crayons (where the tips are). Once the wax starts melting, move the dryer around as needed to prevent splattering and get wax to go straight down.  
   

Extension:

Kids can do individual crayon melting pictures on cardstock then cut off the crayons.

I tried spelling something with stickers and peeling them off.

Instead of the wax not showing up under the stickers to make it appear white, the wax spread under the stickers.

Mini Fruit Pizzas

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 3 ounces cream cheese
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1 jar Marshmallow Cream
• 1 block cream cheese
• Raspberries
• Manderin Oranges (cut in halves)
• Banana (sliced and cut in fourths)
• Green Grapes (cut in halves)
• Blueberries
• Plums (sliced and cut in fourths)

Directions:

1. In a bowl cream butter, 3 ounces cream cheese and sugar until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; beat until smooth.
2. In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Stir till soft dough forms.
3. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
5. Bake cookies for 8 minutes or until lightly browned and let cool.
6. Mix 1 jar of marshmallow cream and 1 block of cream cheese for the kids to spread on the cookies.
7. Cut up the fruit for the kids to make a mini rainbow on their cookies.