St. Patrick’s Day Rainbow: Explore Science and Art
Are you looking for ways to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with your child? There are plenty! If your kiddo is into science and art, you can combine the two into one holiday-themed activity. A rainbow that leads to the leprechaun’s pot of gold is a well-known St. Patrick’s Day symbol. Instead of just drawing or coloring a rainbow of colors, create a fizzing paint that helps your little learner to explore chemistry, colors and much, much more!
Ingredients:
- Food coloring
- Baking soda (note: baking soda, and not baking powder)
- White vinegar
- A paintbrush
- White card stock paper
- A muffin tin or small-sized paper cups
How-To Steps:
- Spoon about a tablespoon of baking soda into each section of the muffin tin or each cup.
- Drip a few drops of food coloring into the baking soda. Use a rainbow of hues, following a ROYGBIV color scheme (that’s red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet). If you don’t have all of the colors, your child can mix them using the primaries (red, yellow and blue) in separate cups. This adds an extra layer to the science aspect of the activity.
- Mix the color and baking soda well.
- Start adding the vinegar. Ask your child what she thinks will happen, having her predict the reaction that will take place. If she doesn’t know, sit back and watch what happens. Slowly pour small amounts of the vinegar in, watching it bubble like a mini volcano. Repeat for each color.
- Paint the rainbow on the paper. The paint may stop fizzing. That’s okay – simply add tiny amounts of vinegar to get it started again.
