Fun with colors: Rainbow handprints

Most of the times it's real fun being with kids and teaching them, watching them grow! Sharing a colorful activity we did with the 5-year old kids. We talked a lot about colors, rainbows, the colors of the rainbow. We mixed to make indigo and orange colors. And then all of the kids took turns to choose a color of the rainbow and paint their own hand with the color. Then they all made hand prints on a big sheet of paper which we later hanged in our classroom.

 

 

Our team-work rainbow hand print poster. 

 Materials required: 

Shallow dishes to add and/or mix color: 7 (one for each color of the rainbow)

Paint brushes: 7 (one for each color so there is no hassle of washing the brushes all the time)

Water in a cup (to add to the colors if the density is thick)

A big sheet of paper

1. Begin by adding the 3 primary colors in 3 different dishes: red, yellow and blue. Here we talked about primary colors which we cannot make with any other colors but we have to buy these 3 colors and after that we can make all the colors with these 3 colors. 
2. We then talked about secondary colors: orange (red+yellow), purple (red+blue) and green (yellow+blue). We simultaneously made those 3 colors as well. 
3. We also talked about how can we make black color: and we reached the conclusion that we must mix all the dark colors available so we will get black color. So we tried mixing the dark colors: red, blue, orange, purple and green. We ended up with a brownish color. Then we tried adding more and more purple and finally we achieved a shade almost close to black. So we reached the conclusion that we should not have mixed orange instead only red. 
4. We even made indigo color: blue + purple. Now we have all the colors of the rainbow. 
5. After we had our colors ready, we laid down the big sheet of paper and talked about the team-work poster with everyone's hand prints. 
6. Then started the real fun: each child took turns to choose a color, painted his/her one hand entirely and made a hand print on the big sheet. Some of them loved to directly dip their hand in paint and make the print impression. 
   
7. We continued this activity until everyone got the chance to paint their hand and make a print on our poster. 
   
   
   
   
8. Few of our children wanted to make their individual hand prints on their own papers. So we agreed on that and they chose a different style: painted the hand with a different color, and all the fingers with different colors. Those hand prints came out looking like real rainbow hand prints. 
   
   
   
   

This was a fun and colorful activity. We had a lot of talks about colors: primary colors, secondary colors and how to make different colors like black, brown, indigo etc. How many are the colors of rainbow, which colors and the order of colors. It was a great learning session of teamwork, mathematics, knowledge of colors and natural phenomenon and development of fine motor skills.

The very next day we spotted this big rainbow outside our school and we were so excited !!!! 

Spinach Chicken Pasta

Ingredients:

Pasta of choice (I used whole wheat spaghetti): 1/2 cup
Chicken: 100 gm (cubed)
Baby spinach (washed and roughly chopped): 1 cup
Onion (chopped): 1
Olive oil: 3 tsp.
Garlic (minced or finely chopped): 3 cloves
Chili flakes: 1/4 tsp.
Oregano: 1/2 tsp.
Baby tomatoes: 6
Tomato ketchup: 2 tsp.
Vegetable stock: 1 cup
Salt to taste
Black pepper powder to taste

1. Boil the pasta according to the instructions on the pack. Drain the water and keep the pasta aside. 
2. Heat oil in a pan and add garlic and the chicken. Fry until the chicken is almost cooked and white from both sides. Drain from the oil and keep aside. 
3. Heat the same oil and add the onions. Let cook until the onions start browning. 
4. Add the baby spinach and let cook just till the leaves start wilting. Cut baby tomatoes in half and add to the pan. 
5. Add salt, oregano and chili flakes. Add the vegetable stock and bring everything to a boil. 
6. Add the cooked chicken and give everything a stir. 
7. Add the boiled pasta and tomato ketchup. Mix everything well and stir nicely. Let cook for about 4-5 minutes until all flavors are mixed and it reaches the desired consistency. 
8. Sprinkle black pepper and turn off the flame. Serve.