MIRROR RAINBOWS

• You can help your child make a rainbow appear on the wall by having her place a small mirror in a glass of water.
• Then, have her place the glass on a window ledge in the direct sun light.
• Help her adjust the mirror so that the light hits the mirror and reflects through the water, creating a rainbow on the wall.

WATER RAINBOWS

• On a sunny day, get out a garden hose and show your child how to spray out the water so that it creates a rainbow in the spray.
• To make rainbows, we need light and water.
• Explain to your child that light contains many different colors; red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.  (Yes, I know the official names of the last two colors are violet and indigo, but with preschoolers, I like to say with the common colors, blue and purple.)
• When the light is filtered through water, the water breaks up and light rays and we can see the different colors.

PRISM RAINBOWS

• Show your child a prism (available at teacher stores).
• Stand at a window that has sun shining through.
• Hold the prism up to catch a light ray.
• Have your child look for the rainbow created by the light reflected off the prism.
• Let your child hold the prism and make his own rainbows.
  

BUBBLE RAINBOWS

• Take your child outside on a sunny day and blow some bubbles.
• See if she can find any rainbows in her bubbles.

 
HOW LIGHT REVEALS ITS MANY COLORS -  so far we have seen that water and prisms can fracture light and enable it to show its many rainbow colors.

MILK RAINBOWS

• Place some milk in a shallow dish.
• Add drops of several different food colors in the milk.
• Add a drop of liquid soap to the milk.
• Watch what happens?

OIL & WATER RAINBOWS

• Give your child a bowl of water.
• Let him use eye droppers to drop (a drop each of red, blue and yellow food coloring) into the water.
• Add two drops of cooking oil.
• Have your child look for rainbows in their water.