Here’s a simple way to create rainbows. You will need a tall clear glass, full of water. A plain white piece of paper. A flashlight, some dark paper and masking tape. Use your flashlight to trace a circle onto the dark paper and cut it out. Now cut your circle in half. Place the halves on either side of your flashlight, leaving a medium size slit in the middle for the light to come through. Secure these with your masking tape. There! Now you’re ready to explore!
Find a dark space and place your glass near your white paper. You might want something to raise your glass up a little bit. Now play around with shining your light through the glass of water and see if you can make rainbows onto your paper. Don’t worry if you don’t see them at first. Keep moving your flashlight around to different spots or even tilt the light up or down a bit. You should see them in no time!
Take your glass of water and piece of paper through your house and find sunny spots where you might be able to “catch” rainbows when you place the glass on the sun streaming in.
Another fun way to play with rainbows is using a CD. Perhaps your Mom or Dad have some music CD’s around that they won’t mind you using. In sunny spots notice the rainbows that appear all around the disk. Now find a nice blank wall and shine a flashlight on your disk. Tilt your disk until you can see the rainbow projected onto the wall!
Can you make it bigger or smaller?
Still inspired to enjoy the colors of the rainbow? Try some of these. They work rain or shine!
Rainbow Nature Collection
Get outside and collect materials from nature.
Then sort them based on their color.
Line them up.
Group them.
Or make a rainbow out of them!
Loose Parts Rainbow
Stuck inside and can’t get out?
Collect loose parts from around your house and arrange them by color.
Bottle tops.
Rubber bands.
Buttons.
Beads.
Toothpicks.
Paperclips.
Erasers.
