Home school: Rainbow fun

For part of home school a few weeks ago we had some fun with color and light. My 2 oldest are 6 and 4 so we tend to keep things hands on and fairly simple. First I gave the kids food coloring in red, yellow, and blue, to add to 3 cups of water.  I asked them to make the other colors of the rainbow by mixing the colors they had. They had fun figuring out what combinations make what color. The purple would have looked better but it got some extra colors in it. :) (This part of the lesson was a huge hit because I usually never let the kids pour water back and fourth between glasses.)  Next we put the cups in rainbow order and learned about why the rainbow is always in the same order. Then we painted watercolor paintings of rainbows using only the primary colors. We made sure to overlap the paint to create all the colors in the rainbow. ( I forgot to photograph the paintings but they were lovely, and super fun to make! )

The second part of the lesson was making rainbows with light instead of food coloring and paint. We used a plastic Christmas tree ornament to catch the suns rays, I was prepared for disappointment but I was surprised at how well the plastic "crystal" worked. We taped the ornament onto a dark blue paper and then onto the wall right next to a shadow so the rainbow would be easier to see. They were so bright! We were all amazed at the beauty of the rainbows. :)