If you are as infatuated with rainbows as we are right now, you will love this super simple science discovery for kids. Now, you and your kids can make a rainbow with items you most likely have in your kitchen drunk drawer. How cool is that?
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We are full of rainbow love lately. From our simple flip a rainbow experiment to our rainbow parfaits, we pretty much have been taken over by rainbows in our house.
How to Make a Rainbow | Simple Science Experiment
Materials:
CD
Flashlight
Black or white paper
Optional:
Dish
Water
How to Make a Rainbow with Kids
There are a few ways you can make rainbows with kids and the discovery of what items work best is half the fun. We have tried a few methods here.
Making Rainbows with a CD and White Paper
With just a flashlight, white paper and a cd you can make a rainbow but it can be challenging. We found we needed the lights turned down but that makes it a little harder to take the pictures needed to show you this cool discovery activity.
Experiment with various methods of getting the light to reflect from the CD onto the paper. Do you see it? There is a small rainbow appearing.
Let’s try it with black paper, now….
Making a Rainbow with a CD and Black Paper
The process for this one is pretty much the exact same as before, however this time you are reflecting onto black paper to see if you can make a brighter rainbow! Looks brighter to me.
Now, can we make a REAL Rainbow… You know the kind you see after rain? For that, I asked my children what we needed and they decided to add water to the discovery to see if they could make an even brighter and bigger rainbow.
Making a Rainbow with Water and a CD
Starting with a shallow dish, add a CD to the dish at a slant (we used silly putty to get ours to sit still). You can experiment with mirrors, metal, and CDs to see which ones create the best rainbows.
Use water to fill the dish with water until the CD is covered at least half way. Again, this is something you can mess with to see if it makes a difference in the intensity of the rainbow you create.
Now comes the best part! I have joined with some of my favorite people to bring you some of the latest in Learning with Rainbows. Throughout the year, we will gather together and share learning ideas for all subjects for children in first through third grade. Be sure to subscribe and follow along so you don’t miss any posts from this awesome series.
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