Here are just a few fun ideas for learning about rainbows.

Make a black and white drawing of the arches of a rainbow, and put one dot of color in each section and then the kids paint in the rest of each section.

Create rainclouds in a jar by filling cups of water, spraying shaving cream on top, and using pipettes to drip liquid watercolor onto the shaving cream clouds. It drips through, creating colorful rainfall below. Here are some pictures from Pinterest… check out the original posts here, here and here for more ideas for activities, and thoughts on talking to kids about the science of rain

You can also use pipettes to drip liquid watercolor onto coffee filters, which creates some beautiful color mixing. Then turn them into butterfly decorations with a clothespin and a pipe cleaner. (Source for idea.)

Picture from Thoughtful Spot Day Care

In our classroom, we have a light table with lots of colorful objects on it, rainbow crayons, rainbow colored blocks, a rainbow colored tumbling mat with colored hoops to jump into for some big motor play, and color mix playdough.

You could buy diffraction grating peepholes. (When you hold these up to your eye, then look at a light, the light is broken up into rainbows. Different lights produce different patterns… when I look at my ceiling light at home, I see circular rainbows, when I look at the LED flashlight on my cell phone, I see six rays of rainbows radiating out.)  (If you want to learn more about how prisms separate “white” light into colors, watch this video. Here’s a simple, low equipment experiment to do with your child. And here‘s more activities and a little info about Inventor Isaac Newton and his discovery that light is made up of 7 colors.)

Books to check out:

• A Rainbow of My Own by Don Freeman
• Rainbow by Bauer and Wallace.  A simple non-fiction read-aloud.
• Take a Walk on a Rainbow – A First Look at Colors
• I Am a Rainbow by Dolly Parton. A feelings book. Talks about when we’re tickled pink, seeing red, feeling blue, green with jealousy, scared yellow and when everything is rosy.
•  Rainbows Never End: and other fun facts by DiSiena and Eliot. A science trivia book for ages 6 – 7.
• Curious George Discovers the Rainbow best for ages 6 – 7
• The Invention Hunters Discover How Light Works by Briggs. For age 7 – 8
• Weaving the Rainbow by Lyon and Anderson.

There are also lots of rainbow songs. Check out my YouTube playlist.

We always have more ideas than we have time and space for, but if you’d like more ideas for rainbow-themed activities, look on our Pinterest page: https://www.pinterest.com/bcparented/rain-and-rainbows/