In July 2022, we did our unit study on light, shadows, rainbows, and color. Our children were 6, 4, and 2 during this unit.
Week 1: Light Unit Study
We began our discussion of light by reading the book Oscar and the Moth and the first section of Light, Shadows, Mirrors, and Rainbows. We demonstrated the way that the earth rotates on its axis and revolves around the sun using our globe and a flashlight. This way, we could see which areas of the Earth experience night and day at the same time. We popped a balloon using light from the sun directed at a balloon using a magnifying glass. (Note to friends: you need a dark colored balloon to do this experiment. The white one you already have blown up, left over from a birthday party, will leave you standing outside determined to make the experiment work while your whole family abandons you in the heat and stands inside watching you from the window)
Week 2: Shadow Unit Study
During our shadow unit, we made dinosaur shadow puppets and traced the shadows of different toys. We noticed our shadows when we went for a walk just after noon. They were so small!
Week 3: Rainbow Unit Study
We had so much fun during our rainbow week. We made our own spectroscopes so we could see rainbows by pointing them at the sun. This video was a great tutorial. We watched My Little Pony The Movie because I debated on The Wizard of Oz and decided it was too scary. We did get a little taste of Wizard of Oz when we found that episode of Cosmic Kids Yoga, though!
Week 4: Color Unit Study
The final week of our unit study was all about color. For our little one’s sake, each made a Crazy Color Creatures book. We got a new page each day for about 2 weeks to color, then learned the little song that goes with each creature. At the end of the unit, we stapled their pictures together and they got to sing it for their dad. The big kids played my color sorting game on the pocket chart, and our youngest has her own color sorting activity that she uses when we’re doing table work and she’s bored.
We melted some of our broken crayons to make shaped crayons. Then, we started with just the three primary colors (and white) and carefully mixed each together with the other to get a whole color palette, which we then used to paint pictures.
Our grand finale was playing with rainbow rice!
Check out my free unit study guide for this unit here! And don’t forget to take a look at all the other unit studies we have completed!
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