Student-directed learning in our ELC

 
Last week student Asher was washing his hands for morning tea and he noticed the reflection of a rainbow on the sink, and he ran off to show his friends. Soon the bathroom was overcrowded with children wanting to see the rainbow close up.

“How did this appear?” we asked. 

So this has ultimately led to us investigating colours and rainbows…

We have researched that rainbows are multi-coloured arcs that form in the sky and are formed when sunlight shines through the water. As a result, light reflects off the water droplets, bends (called refraction) and splits.

When sunlight shines through the water droplets, it splits into seven colours. The seven colours of the rainbow are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. This is called a light spectrum! 

To see a rainbow, you need to be standing so the sun so the sun is behind you, and the water in front of you.

A rainbow can be a full circle of light. Because you’re normally standing on the ground when you look at one, you only see half of it. However if you were in an aeroplane you would see more of the circle.

You don’t only see a rainbow after it rains as rainbows can occur anywhere there’s water in the air. In other words, you could even see one if there’s sea spray at the beach or spray at a big, crashing waterfall.

Sometimes, you may even see a double rainbow! Double rainbows are formed when light reflects twice in the raindrops.

The moon can also create rainbows, they’re called moonbows! They’re just like rainbows made by the sun, but are made by the moon instead. 

Please see nationalgeographic.org

We are also very excited to have Leor’s Aba visit us during Science Week to show us a Rainbow experiment and talk to us about being a scientist!!

Jen Duband

Kindergarten Teacher