Rainbow Day

Objective:
The students will engage in a treasure hunt to find a "pot of gold".

Materials

• Index cards with teacher given hints on where the treasure can be found, placed to conduct a treasure hunt.

• A large area to conduct the treasure hunt.

• A picture of gold treasure, or real rewards for the students at the end of the hunt.  For example, a new shiny penny for each student, a gold wrapped chocolate candy, a gold sticker, etc.

Procedure

1. Discuss with the students the folklore of there being a "pot of gold" at the end of a rainbow.  Tell them they are going to go on their own treasure hunt for a "pot of gold".

2. Working as a class, have the students read (or read to them) the first clue of where the treasure is.  Be as creative as possible and gear the clues toward the age of the students.  For example, "go to the place where we throw our waste" (meaning the classroom trashcan).  The treasure hunt may lead them outside, to other areas of the school, whatever is possible.

Other Lesson Ideas

1. Have the students form their bodies into an arch shape.

2. Pass out pieces of rainbow color crepe paper or fabric.  Have the students dance to music trailing their rainbow colors behind them.

3. Make a human demonstration of how a rainbow forms.  Have some students cluster together posing as the sun,  another group of students should form a line by holding hands, representing a ray of sunlight, and another group of students should pose across the room as a group of raindrops.  Have the ray of sunlight move in a straight line to the raindrops then pretend to bounce off of the rain and bend their direction back out towards the sun.  If possible, have 7 students form the ray of sunlight.  Each of these students should have a piece of construction paper representing a different color of the rainbow glued to a piece of white paper.  When they enter the raindrop area, they should display the white side of the paper.  When they bounce and "refract" back out toward the sun, they should flip the paper to the color side.  At that time, the line of students should separate hands and form a line into rainbow order - ROYGBIV.