WonderWorks: Rainbows & Prisms

Today we observed and documented rainbows in prisms and other reflective objects and explored the ideas of rainbow color, color blending, and light!

Today's Topic: Rainbows and Prisms (a guest post by Rebecca Pettyjohn)
Supplies: 
Prisms
CDs (great rainbow reflectors!)
Sidewalk chalk
Rainbow ribbons
Color Paddles
Colors tubes (paper towel tubes with ends covered in different colored transparent plastic)
Mixed Colors supplies for sorting (feathers, beads, pipe cleaners, punched out paper, whatever you have!)
Colorful paper strips in ROYGBIV colors
Clip art clouds
Scissors
Glue

What we read:
Duckie's rainbow / Barry, Frances


What kids do:

Go outside to explore how the sun light makes rainbows through prisms and CDs onto the side walk.

 Try and catch that rainbow!

 Or at least capture it on the ground with your own colors

Identify the colors of the rainbow and our ROYGBIV acronym that helps us remember them.

Sort objects into Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet stripes.

Take sorting to a new level and practice those fine motor skills with colorful clothespins.

Color and match your objects to the ROYGBIV pattern.

Create your own rainbow (3D! Mostly) out of paper and clouds.

Explore color mixing and what the world looks like through rose colored (or yellow, or indigo!) glasses with color paddles.

Mimic the shape of the rainbow in arches and waves with rain
ow ribbon dancers.

And exploring whatever other ways we can use rainbow materials!

Adult Challenge of the week: Remember, try to not tell your child their creations are “pretty.” It’s about the process of exploring! Ask your child about their creations and the colors they are using.

Hindsight Tip: More prisms! Creating our own rainbows in the sunshine was the favorite part and we didn’t have enough prisms to go into every pair of hands!
We had every intention to talk about color blending through the use of awesome play foam, like this And then realized that while I brought my electric mixer, I forgot the mixer paddles! Next time...

Variations to try: If you have kids who are a little bit older, I would encourage this mirror and water trick. A little too much focus and trial for our 3 and 4 year olds, but a great activity for school agers.

 Or try a different Rainbow book! Like It’s an Orange Aardvark, by Michael Hall