Theme of the Week – Rainbows

“April showers bring May flowers…”

Spring is in the air and with that comes rain and hopefully rainbows.  Rainbows are caused when sunlight hits water droplets in the air.  The water droplets act like tiny prisms and reflect the light back into the sky.

Interesting facts:  Did you know that the sun must be behind you in order to see a rainbow? And every person sees their own personal rainbow since the angle which you are viewing it is unique and each person sees color a little differently.  Learn more interesting facts here.

Learn more about Rainbows at these sites The National Center for Atmospheric Research, How Stuff Works, Weather Wiz Kids,

Or take a trip to you local library and check out these and other titles:

 

 

 

 

 

Experiments and Activities:

Catch a Rainbow from Kidzone – This experiment uses just milk, dish soap and food coloring to show how the colors red, yellow and blue combine to make all the colors of the rainbow.

 

 

 

Make a Rainbow with this easy and educational activity that just uses water and a flashlight to shine a rainbow onto a piece of white paper.

 

 

 

Craft, Home and Garden has a recipe for making your own rainbow Bouncy Ball.  This one will take a little more supervision, but it’s a great activity for kids.

 

 

 

Make Rainbow Rock Candy –  This fun experiment and snack is a great way for kids to see their candy grow over time and then be able to eat them.

 

 

 

Create a colorful Bubble Rainbow or make your own bubbles and go outside to blow them.  Have the kids look for the tiny rainbows in the bubbles.

 

 

Rainbow Fireworks in a Jar from I Can Teach My Child is an quick and easy experiment that uses water, food coloring and oil to make explosions of color for kids to enjoy.

 

 

 

Make Rainbow Sidewalk Spray Chalk from Craft, Home and Garden Ideas. This fun activity give kids the chance to mix up different colors and then have fun creating works of art outside.

 

 

 

Fun snack ideas:

Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas made this great Rainbow Fruit Salad.

 

 

 

 

Tot School made Rainbow Toast as a snack.

 

 

 

 

Or you can spend a little time and make this beautiful Rainbow Bread from Cake Student.

 

 

 

 

 

Crafts:

I love this simple 3D Rainbow  from DLTK.

 

 

 

 

 

I Can Teach My Child shows how to make a cute Rainbow Magnet.

 

 

 

 

DLTK has a fun Handprint Rainbow Craft.

 

 

 

 

You can make this easy Paper Rainbow from LibrErin.

 

 

 

 

How much fun is this great Folded Paper Garland from MiniEco?

 

 

 

 

Or this easy Paper Plate Rainbow from Simply Crafty.

 

 

 

 

Songs and Poems:

Here is a simple song and video from Fox Pail about the colors of the rainbow. Poetry 4 Kids has a great poem called Riding a Rainbow.

Want more ideas, here are some lesson plans with rainbows: Tooter 4 Kids, Teaching Heart

Theme of the week was developed to help our Au Pairs with ideas and activities to teach their host kids each week.  Come back next week to learn more about jellyfish!