At this challenging time, the world has adopted the rainbow as the universal symbol of hope. Over the next few weeks we are going to use the rainbow as a focus for some of our learning.
I will add resources on a weekly basis. Don’t worry if you miss a week, the resources will remain on our blog for you to use at your convenience.
Week One
Our first week starts by looking at the rainbow and why it has become the symbol of hope during this time.
Here are learning opportunities using the theme of the rainbow which link into different curricular areas.
LITERACY
Use these clips to discuss what rainbows mean to so many just now and why people are putting them in their windows?https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/51953553
You might want to use https://live.firstnews.co.uk/ or https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround#more-stories-2 to learn about a bit more about why we are self-isolating and the virus.
Look at some of the messages, which came from children in other countries – this clip looks at the origins of the rainbows and some of the messages https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-scotland-52117854/coronavirus-always-think-positively-we-are-all-with-you Who would you like to send a message of hope to? It might be a friend, a grandparent, one of your neighbours, a teacher or even a stranger in another country. What would your message say?
Now start to write your message and think about how you would like to send it… There are lots of different choices… you could design a card, make up a dance, draw a picture, sing a song or even play a piece of music. This would be a good opportunity to involve your whole family – record the message and send it to your chosen person.
Investigate how rainbows are formed and write a report… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm9ZkYTnCNE
Interview your family members to find out how they are feeling, what they like most about self-isolating and what they like least. Have they had to do this or anything similar before in their lives? Report back on your findings – this could be by video clip, through art (perhaps a cartoon sketch of your family in isolation), in a poem or a short written piece. You may also want to compile a family album, showing some of the fun things you have done during this time and to capture the feelings of family members over the period.
SCIENCE
You could learn how to grow a rainbow here… https://melscience.com/US-en/articles/how-grow-rainbow-home/ It’s a fun activity, which also uses science where you can discover how water travels through paper. This also links with our new topic!
If you are interested in finding out more about rainbows and the science behind how the light travels, the following links provide some materials on reflection and refraction – https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zk2pb9q/resources/1 and https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/clips/zqg3cdm
You may wish to investigate whether you can create you own rainbows by using water and light. Can you capture your findings in a photograph?
ART
Using the discussions about the colours of the rainbows – look at the artist Kandinsky and create your own Kandinsky styled pictures…https://www.projeccom/kandinsky-art-for-kids-chalk-pastels
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=kandinsky+for+kids&qpvt=kandinsky+for+kids&FORM=IGRE
I would love to see any of the work you complete based on these activities! Make sure you send them to me via Mail, Microsoft Teams or on Twitter!
