How to Make a Rainbow for Kids

Ah, the perfect science project for St. Patrick’s day, a rainbow for kids to make without too many supplies. Also, this is one of the few rainbow projects that doesn’t involve making a prism with a mirror. Come on! A prism tutorial? We can do better than that, right guys?

Some people call it the “Rainbow in a glass” other people call it the “Rainbow Density project” and we just call it “a fun little project that your kids will love”! Check it out:

You’ll Need

sugar
water
food coloring
tablespoon
5 glasses or clear plastic cups

*This will not make a full rainbow of course, just the four colors but if you’re feeling adventurous you can use all the colors of the rainbow.

Directions

Add 3 tablespoons of water to the first 4 glasses and stir each solution. If you notice that the sugarisn’t dissolving in any of the four glasses, add one more tablespoon of water to the glasses.
Add 3 drops of red food coloring to the first glass, yellow food coloring to the second glass, green food coloring to the third glass, and blue food coloring to the fourth glass and stir each glass.
Fill the last glass about one-fourth full of the blue sugar solution.
Here comes the slightly tricky part: Layer some green sugar solution above the blue liquid by putting a spoon in the glass, just above the blue layer, and pouring the green solution slowly over the back of the spoon. If correctly, the blue layer will barely be disturbed. Add your green solution until the glass is about half full.
Do the exact same thing with the yellow solution above the green liquid and fill the glass to three-quarters full.
And lastly, layer the red solution above the yellow liquid. Fill the glass the rest of the way.