Make Your Own Rainbow

You can make a rainbow right this minute in your very own house!  Your littles are going to love it!    This has got to be the easiest experiment ever!  I guarantee you have all of the supplies you need for it right now!

What You Need:

*Clear glass filled with water
*White piece of paper
*Sunlight

Step 1: Find a sunny spot.
Step 2: Hold your glass of water in the sunlight.
Step 3: Place the white piece of paper under your glass.  Play with the glass and the sunlight until a rainbow appears on your paper.

Now that you have conducted your experiment, talk about rainbows and what makes them.  Ask questions such as:

1.  When do you see rainbows?

2. Do you see rainbows in the daytime or nighttime?  

3. What usually has occurred when you see a rainbow?

4. How did we make our rainbow?  Was it day or night? Was it raining?  Where are the raindrops? 

You can then discuss that rainbows are created when sunlight passes through raindrops.  Light is colorless but when it passes through water it refracts (changes directions as a result of entering another medium- water) It breaks down into the colors of the rainbow; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.  

The Leprechaun Who Lost His Rainbow by Sean Callahan is a great book about the colors of the rainbow.  

If you liked this activity, check out all of our activities in our 

Catch a Leprechaun unit.

• Catch a Leprechaun lesson plan
• Recycled Rainbow and Other Rainbow Activities
• Can You Catch a Leprechaun Using a Wheel and Axle?
• Leprechaun and Fairy Math
• The Inclined Plane
• Walking Rainbow