Skittles Rainbow Science

Materials
Skittles
White plate
Warm water

Directions
Place Skittles in a circular pattern on a white plate. Pour warm water into the center of the plate and watch what happens to the colors of the Skittles as they make a rainbow pattern.

Shaving Cream Rainbow Clouds

Materials
3 cups of water
Food coloring (red, blue, yellow)
1 can of shaving cream
1 larger jar filled with clear water
Pipettes

Directions
Invite your child to place several drops of food coloring in the smaller cups of water. Take the larger jar filled with clear water and spray shaving cream on top of the water to represent a cloud. Using a pipette, invite your child to squeeze and drop colored water onto the shaving cream cloud.  Observe what happens as the water seeps through the shaving cream and falls into the clear water. 

Roller Painting a Rainbow

Materials
Tempera paint in rainbow colors
Long white bulletin board paper
Rolling pin
Tape

Directions
Tape a long piece of white paper to the table or workspace. Place a drop of every color paint in rainbow order (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple) on one end of the paper. Using a rolling pin, you take one end of the rolling pin and your child takes the other end and rolls the pin through the paint and down to the other end of the paper.

Rainbow Pony Beads and Pipe Cleaners

Materials
Pony beads in rainbow colors
Pipe cleaners in rainbow colors
Foam block used for floral arranging
Container for beads

Directions
Invite your child to stick one pipe cleaner of each color into the foam block. Next invite your child to place a bead one at a time onto the matching color pipe cleaner. Count how many of each color once all the beads have been placed on the pipe cleaners. How many red beads? Orange? etc.

Rainbow Milk Toast

Ingredients
White bread
Sweetened Condensed Milk
New, clean paint brushes
Food coloring
6 Small blows

Directions
Pour a small amount of sweetened condensed milk in each bowl and add food coloring to make the colors of the rainbow. Using new paint brushes, invite your child to paint a rainbow or colorful design onto a piece of bread.  Toast in toaster oven.  Enjoy as a special snack!

Rainbow in a Ziploc Baggie – Color Mixing

Materials
Red tempera paint
Yellow tempera paint
Blue tempera paint
Gallon size Ziploc bag
Duct tape
Directions
Place a glob of red tempera paint, a glob of blue paint, and a glob of yellow tempera paint inside the Ziploc bag.  Zip the bag closed and reinforce with clear duct tape.  Invite your child to use his fingers to mix the three colors together.  Observe the new colors that are made as yellow mixes with blue, red mixes with yellow, and blue mixes with red.

Rainbow Bundt Cake

Ingredients
White cake mix
Food coloring or paste
Eggs
Oil

Directions
Make cake as directed. Divide the batter into six small bowls.  Add food coloring or paste to each bowl in the colors of a rainbow. In a greased and floured bundt pan, pour the vaious colors of batter in layers. Bake as instructed. Allow to cool slightly before removing from pan. Enjoy!

Fizzy Rainbows

Materials
Freeze colored water in plastic cups
Baking soda
Pipettes
Vinegar
Tray

Directions
Take frozen water cups out of the freezer. Place cups onto a tray. Invite your child to scoop approximately 1/4 cup of baking soda on top of the frozen water. Place the pipette into vinegar, squeeze the top, release so the vinegar gets sucked up into the pipette. Then squeeze the pipetter over the vinegar and observe what happens.

Contact Paper Rainbow

Materials
Clear contact paper
Permanent marker
Craft tissue paper cut into 1-inch squares (rainbow colors)

Directions
On the non-sticky side of the contact paper, draw arcs to resemble a rainbow. Carefully pull the backing off and tape the contact paper to the table surface, sticky side up. Place one piece of tissue in each section to represent the color to be used for each arc. Invite your child to add colors to the contact paper. This is a good project to keep out and invite your child to continue adding to the rainbow a little bit at a time over a few days. Once all the arcs are covered with tissue, hang the rainbow contact paper up on a window for the light to shine through.

Clothes Pins Numbers Game

Materials
Heavy number cards 1-10 (Sandpaper number cards work well)
10 clothes pins

Directions
Lay a few number cards and clothes pins out onto the table or carpet surface. Invite your toddler or preschooler to choose a numeral and pinch the number of clothes pins around the edges of the card to match the numeral.

Toddlers should focus on 1-5
Preschoolers 1-10