The girls did an observational drawing of rainbows while watching this video. I asked them to pay particular attention to the colors and their order.

After watching this fun clip, we learned that rainbows are made of white light from the sun.  When the light from the sun is bent with a prism, water drop, etc., we are able to see the colors. 

After exploring a prism, our oldest daughter was able to confirm that if you look through a prism while rotating it, you will discover a plethora of rainbows!

After reading the book, All The Colors of the Rainbow by Allan Fowler, we learned that in order to see a rainbow the sun has to be behind you and the rain, or any type of misty water, needs to be in front of you. We went right outside (after getting bathing suits on) to try to create a rainbow of our own.  We found a sunny spot in our yard, stood with our backs to the sun and turned the hose on. Not only did we make a rainbow of our own, we made a double rainbow! Notice how the colors of the rainbow on top are in reverse order.

A rainbow discovered on a late afternoon, after a rainy day inside, flower picking in pajamas, walk with Daddy.

We also tried this experiment from National Geographic Kids.  We put a mirror in a large glass vase that was filled with water.  Then we went in to a dark closet and pointed a flashlight at the mirror.  The mirror in the water acted like a prism and a rainbow appeared on the blank white wall!