Just last week we saw a double rainbow and I actually got a picture of it with my phone, so we decided to make that day 4 in our rainbow unit study. We had a rainbow breakfast and lunch and did some more rainbow crafts, math, and science. The kids loved the mini fruit rainbow pizzas that we had for snack today.
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:
- What is the order of the colors in a rainbow? Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple
- What is the order of the colors in the double rainbow on the top? Purple, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Red
- 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:
- Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.
- Lightly beat the eggs with the buttermilk, milk and melted butter.
- 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.
- Separate the batter into 6 bowls and added food coloring to make the colors of the rainbow.
- Heat a lightly greased griddle or heavy skillet over medium-high heat (375 degrees on an electric griddle).
- Pour 1/4 cup batter per pancake onto the griddle or skillet, spacing the pancakes apart so they do not run together.
- 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.
Hand Print Rainbow
Materials:
- Paint (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple)
- Poster board
Directions:
- Cut the poster board in the shape of a semi-circle.
- Have the children put their purple hand prints along the bottom curve.
- Then blue hand prints over the purple prints (it’s okay if it overlaps a bit)
- 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:
- Using your funnel pour vinegar into your bottle. You only need to fill about 1/3 of the bottle.
- Using another (dry) funnel pour baking soda into your balloon. Fill the balloon approx. 1/2 way.
- Cover the top of the bottle with you balloon. Make sure you don’t let the baking soda spill into the bottle yet.
- When ready, lift your balloon and let the baking soda fall into the vinegar.
- 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:
- Cook a small pot of spaghetti and drained it and tossed it in a couple of teaspoons of oil.
- Divided it into 6 bowls and added a some liquid food coloring to each one, and stirred it through.
- 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:
- cut paper plates in half.
- paint a rainbow on the back sides, both halves.
- after they were dry, use a glue stick to add the streamers.
- cut the streamers in half long wise so they measure about 1in. X 10in.
- in theory you would add the color of streamer under the color of paint.
- glue streamers to the inside of both halves of the plates.
- staple the two plates together.
- 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:
- 11×14 canvas
- hot glue gun & glue stick
- hair dryer
- lots of crayons
- newspaper
Discussion:
- Pick out the colors you want to use and line them up until you run out of space.
- 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.
- Line your floor with newspaper, place the canvas against the wall, and start blow drying.
- 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.
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:
- In a bowl cream butter, 3 ounces cream cheese and sugar until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; beat until smooth.
- In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Stir till soft dough forms.
- Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
- Bake cookies for 8 minutes or until lightly browned and let cool.
- Mix 1 jar of marshmallow cream and 1 block of cream cheese for the kids to spread on the cookies.
- Cut up the fruit for the kids to make a mini rainbow on their cookies.
More rainbow fun that we had this week: