Rainbows for St. Patrick's Day



We found so many wonderful activities, art projects, snacks and crafts for St. Patrick's Day that I decided to make an entire unit out of it all.

Today we decided to start with all the fun rainbow themed activities we found.




We started with art!

 We never start with art but today I wanted to bring some fun right in and so I had them each pick a color of paper and glue fruit loops cereal into a rainbow on their paper; making a giant rainbow.  We finished off our rainbows using cotton balls for our clouds.



Our finished rainbow

Once they had their rainbows done and we set them aside to dry I had them fill out a rainbow simile writing page. 


The title was The Rainbow and each line picked a specific color to compare (for example: a rainbow is as red as a _____).  This was simple to type up in word and I added a cute little rainbow clip art picture to our page.  Since I only have to make three copies and not 20 or so for a whole class we even get to print them out in color; which for some reason makes the boys very happy! Their comparisons were great and very original and they couldn't wait to share them with one another.

 I'll summarize for you: 
  • as red as a stop sign, tomato and fire truck, 
  • as orange as an orange and a glue cap, 
  • as yellow as the sun, a lemon and a banana, 
  • as green as a blade of grass and the skin on a watermelon, 
  • as blue as the sky, the water, a blueberry, 
  • and as purple as an eggplant, a fruit snack (you know the purple ones), and a grape. 


    For math we did a fun activity using skittles; "taste the rainbow!".  


    We had to modify the papers we printed out of the computer since the boys picked out tropical skittles to try this time.  I crossed off all the yellow and purple and wrote in pink and blue.  The older boys had two worksheets whereas Evan just had one.  I felt the worksheets I found were all about graphing, adding and comparing; skills the older boys already have pretty down pat but I was pleasantly surprised when I got to review adding multiple two digit numbers (it made me feel like they were at least learning something today!). 

    Evan sorted all his skittles by color and graphed how many he had.  He counted, colored, compared his Skittles and then had to read all the color words at the bottom of the graph.  Once he was done the graph he had to practice writing a few of his color words to answer the questions at the bottom of the page.  

    The older boys did the graph also and then had a page where they wrote how many they had of each color.  They also had to add up how many total Skittles they had (this is where I had to give a lesson in adding multiple numbers).  The bottom of the page had them write different addition sentences adding up different skittle colors.  Luckily they all had huge piles of skittles so the boys had to practice carrying over and adding two digit numbers together.  I also had them both turn their pages over and add up Evan's total number of skittles as well. 

    We then talked about who had the most total skittles and who had the most of each color.  We guessed that the bag had the most pink and then red skittles since those numbers were everyone's largest numbers.  We talked about who had the least of each color and which colors were probably not as abundant in the bag.  The older boys finished up with a math minute on their 4 and 7 multiplication facts.

    Sorting their candies

    Alec adds them up

    
    Evan graphs his candies

    The older boys' papers

    We finished up our morning work with some quick Skittle science.  

    I told the boys we were going to heat up Skittles in the microwave and I asked them to predict what would happen.  They thought the skittles might melt, or else the outside colors would fade.  I asked them a bunch of questions and we talked about what skittles are like how they're soft on the inside and hard on the outside.  We talked about what skittles are mostly made out of and what happens to sugar when it's heated up.  We put one of each color onto a plate and microwaved it for 1-2 minutes (our microwave took 2 minutes).

    As the boys were watching they changed their predictions slightly.  Ian thought the hard coating might crack and fall off leaving the stuff in the middle exposed.  They noticed the skittles started moving and shaking and predicted why that might be happening.  Finally we watched as the orange Skittle started foaming out one side and the other colors started exploding open.  The hard shell of the outside either cracked in two or split open and the inner part of the Skittles melted and leaked out (foaming).

    We remembered when something similar happened with Ivory soap and the boys figured the inside stuff was expanding and broke the outer shell.  It was such a fun and super quick science experiment!

    Our Skittles burst open




    Linking Up With:

    JENerally Informed

    Comments

    1. Visiting from Monday of Many Blessings. Thank for sharing your day with us and the different parts of your homeschool life. These look like fun activities. Have a great week.

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      Replies
      1. Thank you for stopping by! I hope you have a great week also

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    2. Visiting from Monday of Many Blessings. Thank for sharing your day with us and the different parts of your homeschool life. These look like fun activities. Have a great week.

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    3. Thanks so much for linking up with me!!! I hope to see you back again!

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    4. I love St. Patrick's Day, but I get so focused on green that I forget about rainbows! Thanks for this post!

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    5. Such fun ways to have learning play focused around rainbows! I'll definitely have to try microwaving candies with my kids. It would be so much fun to see how different candies react and to do some research to find out why each candy reacts differently. Thanks for sharing at the #happynowlinkup!

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      Replies
      1. We've done many candy science experiments; often after Halloween and Easter when we have an abundance. Melting various ones in the microwave is always fun my boys also enjoy taking sour candies and putting them in vinegar; the baking soda fizzes!

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    6. How very interesting! I love your activities. They are so fun to learn. I think my kids would love this experiment too. I will be shopping for skittles now - which I don't normally do. One pack for me and one pack for the kids of course. ;) Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful posts up with us on #FabFridayPost

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      Replies
      1. Enjoy! Glad I could help give you some ideas.

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    7. I love the rainbow comparisons! So happy you shared this with us at #FridayFrivolity!

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