Make a Rainbow with Materials Gathered Around the House
Make a Rainbow
from materials gathered around the house.
With the long, unexpected days at home, I’ve gathered some materials everyone has around the house and assembled a rainbow. Here is how your child can too:
Materials:
Magazines
scissors
a piece of cardboard cut in the shape of a rainbow
glue, Elmers is best, but a glue stick will work too
jars
pom-poms
plastic bottle and snack tops
pipe cleaner
beads
It should be said that I did not invent this project and it is likely that you have seen in before. It’s fun and who doesn’t love rainbows?
Rainbows appear in seven colors, they are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. Water droplets break white sunlight into the seven colors of the spectrum. You see a rainbow if the sun is behind you and the rain in front. There is an easy way to remember the colors in order, the acronym ROYGBIV or Roy G. Biv is an acronym for the sequence of colors.
To begin, go through magazines searching for items that are colors of the RAINBOW. Tear or cut them out. This is a fun activity in itself and could go on for days. Your child will be building cutting skills without even knowing it. I have the colors organized in jars, one jar for each color. These extras can always be used for a future project.
Once complete, assemble the colored papers on the cardboard beginning with red at the top. Ripping the paper into smaller pieces ensures that there will be space for every color. Sometimes, we combine blue and indigo if space is an issue. Glue them down.
You can add extra colorful embellishments to this project. Colorful pom-poms add a third dimension. Plastic snack and bottle tops, the bright red and green ones are great and abundant in a household with children.
Secure a pipe cleaner on the back to hang the beautiful rainbow up for all to admire. Your child can add beads or pom-pom beads to the pipe cleaner first. Letter beads are a great addition to the project. Depending on their age, it’s a good way to work on letter recognition.
Here are my RAINBOW jars. I store the plastic tops separately.