Did you know there are some really simple rainbow activities for kids to do that only require a few basic kitchen ingredients? It’s true! And best of all your children will have a blast creating their own beautiful rainbows.
Rainbow Activities for Kids
This week one of our tried and true picture books resurfaced. “What Makes a Rainbow” has been a favorite in our home for over 9 years. Our copy is well worn and loved. Our daughter pulled it off of the shelf and wanted me to read it to her. Afterwards she asked if there were some ways for her to be able to make rainbows….Yes, yes there are my darling!
Skittles Rainbow Activity for Kids
We started our rainbow activities with a skittles rainbow. All you’ll need for this activity are…
- skittles
- plate
- a cup of warm water
Our son jumped in on this and wanted to put the skittles in a pattern around the outer edge of the plate. Then our daughter poured the warm water slowly into the center of the plate. We stood back and watched the magic happen. The warm water pulled the colors off of the skittles and into the center of the plate! Our son said it looked like a rainbow vortex, but I’ll let you be the judge.
Bubbling Rainbow Activity for Kids
Our second activity was a bubbling rainbow! All you need for this experiment is…
- Baking Soda
- Vinegar
- Food Coloring
- Clear plastic cup or pint size jars
Our daughter lined up 6 plastic cup and dropped a few drops of food coloring into each. She used red, red with yellow for orange, yellow, yellow with blue for green, blue, and blue with red for purple. She loved being able to tell me which primary colors mixed in order to get certain secondary colors. Next she poured vinegar into each cup. You could fill the cups all the way up if you wanted to create more of a messy rainbow. Our daughter only filled hers half way with vinegar. Then she took a spoon full of baking soda and poured it into each cup. She giggled and laughed as each colorful cup fizzed and foamed creating a bubbling rainbow.
Walking Rainbow Activity for Kids
Our final rainbow activity was the walking or crawling rainbow, so named because the colors seem to “walk” or “crawl” from cup to cup. For this rainbow science activity you’ll need…
- 6 clear plastic cup or pint sized jars
- paper towels
- food coloring
- water
Fill all of your cups full of water. Add red food coloring to your first cup, then skip a cup and add yellow food coloring. Skip the next cup and then add blue food coloring. It should go red cup, clear cup, yellow cup, clear cup, blue cup, clear cup.
Our son folded 6 paper towel strips long ways into thirds. Then we placed the end of one strip into the red cup and the other end into the clear cup. We continued this pattern until we got back to the red cup and all of the cups had the paper towel ends in them. The color was slowly wicked up the paper towels. The yellow and blue waters dripped into the clear cup making green! This was a cool activity on color mixing.
Afterwards we discussed how the colored water traveled up the paper towels by a process called capillary action. This is the ability of liquid to flow upwards, against gravity!
Even though our skies were clear, it was a great day for rainbows!
Thank you for reading Rainbow Activities for Kids. You may also enjoy our posts Easy Rubber Egg Experiment, Fun Brain Activities for Kids, and Solar Oven S’mores!
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