She’s Like a Rainbow

March is a great time for learning about the weather, including rainbows!  Kids love rainbows with their bright colors and mystery–and there is plenty of opportunity for scientific exploration!

With our preschoolers, we made dyed pasta rainbows.  We also gave the toddlers in our group the option of making the craft with fruity cereal o’s on paper–but this generally resulted in them just eating the cereal!

Materials:

• Rotelle (Wagon Wheel) Pasta
• Food Dye
• Wax Paper
• Cotton Balls
• Glue
• Thread (for hanging)

1. Dye the pasta by mixing 1 tablespoon of vinegar with pasta and a few drops of food coloring.  Our pasta was very yellow and so that affected the colors.  I might try multicolored pasta next time. (instructions via Frugal Family Fun Blog)
2. Begin by gluing 3-5 of the violet/purple pieces in an arc on your wax paper.
3. Glue each color of the rainbow in order around the previous one. (my daughter stopped halfway through the orange and switched to red–but that’s okay!)
4. Tear cotton balls into two or three pieces and glue at the ends of the rainbows.
5. Once the rainbow is dry, run a needle and thread through one of the top pieces of pasta and tie in a loop. Hang on a window.

While the rainbow is drying, you can enjoy a rainbow of fruit and discuss how eating a rainbow helps keep you healthy and gives you energy.  We were out of grapes and kiwi but managed most of the rest of the rainbow.

We also made rainbow star melted crayons but these took longer than I thought they would (and I didn’t love the way my kitchen smelled afterwards). If you want to make layered rainbow crayons, try this process at Chica and Jo.

And we read books about rainbows:

• Duckie’s Rainbow: A cute story that follows Ducky through all of the colors and at the end the pages create the rainbow.
• Rainbow and You: A quirky book that covers how rainbows happen as well as the myths various cultures developed about rainbows.
• Mouse Paint: Not really about rainbows but a fun story about color mixing that the kids really enjoyed.
• We also read a cute little poem about Rainbow Fairies that is available in If You See a Fairy Ring: A Rich Treasury of Classic Fairy Poems.
• I haven’t read these yet, but I am eager to find: The Magic School Bus Makes A Rainbow: A Book About Color and The Rainbow Goblins

More rainbow crafts and recipes:

• Beaded Rainbow (My Montessori Journey)
• Recycled Paper Rainbow (No Time for Flashcards)
• Beaded Rainbow (Kaboose)
• Tissue Paper Rainbow (Kansas City Public Library)
• Fruity Cereal Rainbow (Kansas City Public Library)
• Rainbow Streamer Mobile (Kaboose)