Rainbows occur often after a rainstorm or when a large quantity of water in the air refracts the light given off by the sun. Teach your students about weather patterns with a science lesson showing how rainbows appear. A slideshow depicting the formation of clouds and how storms develop can lead to the end result of how the light bounces off the excess moisture at a 42 degree angle, creating an array of colors, which will help students understand the principle behind the creation of rainbows.
Your students will appreciate the chance to get out of their seats with an interactive rainbow lesson with the game of "Twister." Put a new twist to this body tangling game by having students create their own game board on a plastic drop cloth with construction paper circles. Instead of using basic primary colors such as red, blue or yellow, label the circles with specific names like fuchsia, lime or violet. When you call out the names of these new colors, ask the game players to identify which color group each specific color should go in within the rainbow color scheme.
Use a craft lesson to teach about specific color schemes within a rainbow framework. Give each student a set of watercolor paints and a sheet of poster board. Monochromatic, analogous or triadic color schemes have distinct color relationships that evoke different emotions. Ask students to choose a single hue such as blue. Use that hue to show the differences in a monochromatic rainbow that has various hues in a single color, an analogous rainbow that includes colors adjacent to the main hue in the color wheel and a triadic rainbow where colors are equally spread apart in the color wheel. The watercolor painting activity can help students physically understand the relationship of the color schemes.
Rainbows can be created without the use of excessive moisture in the air. Show students how to make a homemade rainbow with a prism and a sheet of paper. Students should hold a prism up to a natural source of light and move it around to try to refract the light on a sheet of paper. Ask another student to then draw the rainbow on the paper. As the students work to bend and refract the light, discuss the differences between physical objects and abstract objects.