*This post is sponsored by Clarius Entertainment. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
In honor of the upcoming animated film release, Legends of Oz: Dorothy Returns, I am sharing three fun rainbow experiments you can try with your kids. These rainbow experiments are not only fun, but also educational. Before we begin these rainbow crafts though, I have to share with you that I have two major obsessions that you might not know about.
The first is anything to do with Oz and the characters. If you don’t believe me, here is the only year I asked my kids to do my dream costumes… and the only year I ever got away with it.
This was my dream Halloween year as a mom and my mother-in-law even helped make the costume for me. Basically, all perfect Halloween dreams come true.
I miss those days.
The other thing you should know is that I am an enormous fan of Lea Michele and anything and all things related to Glee. I run to a Glee playlist, I pretty much cry about every emotional thing on that show, I sleep in a Glee shirt (yes, I do!), and Lea is my favorite actress in it. When I heard that not only was a Legends of Oz movie coming out, but that Lea Michele was doing the voice of Dorothy for it, I was beside myself with excitement.
I will be first in line to buy my tickets. And I will probably pre-order my tickets at my theater. That’s how excited I truly am!
In the animated film, Legends of Oz: Dorothy Returns, Dorothy is called back for another adventure in Oz. After waking to post-tornado Kansas, Dorothy (Lea Michele) and Toto are whisked to Oz on a magical rainbow mover sent by their old friends the Scarecrow (Dan Aykroyd), the Lion (Jim Belushi) and the Tin Man (Kelsey Grammer). Time in Oz has passed much faster than back in Kansas, and Dorothy discovers that the Jester (Martin Short) – the devious brother of the Wicked Witch of the West – is taking Oz over one region at a time, holding their leaders captive and casting a pall of darkness over the beloved land. Even Glinda (Bernadette Peters) is unable to combat the Jester’s evil powers, making Dorothy their only hope.
When she arrives in Oz, Dorothy’s plan is to travel to the Emerald City to reunite with her old friends and join forces with them to stop the Jester. However, the yellow brick road isn’t quite as easy to follow this time around, especially with the Jester planting tricky detours to lead her astray, so she enlists the help of Wiser the owl (Oliver Platt), Marshal Mallow (Hugh Dancy), China Princess (Megan Hilty) and Tugg the tugboat (Patrick Stewart) to help find her way.
Since Dorothy is sent to Oz on a magical rainbow mover, we decided to try three rainbow experiments that you can do together in honor of the film!
Make a Liquid Rainbow
Supplies Needed
Olive Oil
Rubbing Alcohol
Dawn Blue Dish Detergent
Corn Syrup
Food Coloring (red & green)
Large Jar
Experiment
Let’s make a liquid rainbow in a jar.
1. To make our blue slowly pour 1 cup of blue dish soap down the side of your jar. You want to make sure to do this slowly too so you don’t create any bubbles.
2. Next mix 1 cup of water with four drops of green food coloring. Mix well. Tip your jar and slowly pour the water down the side of the jar.
3. Next pour one cup of oil carefully down the side of the jar to create your yellow.
4. Finally mix 1 cup of rubbing alcohol with four drops of red food coloring. Tip your jar and slowly pour the alcohol down the side of the jar.
Results from our Liquid Rainbow
Out of all of our experiments that we performed, this was our favorite. Our yellow got a little bubbly, but everything else stayed true with separate colors. This is a great lesson for teaching your kids about density. The different liquids all have different densities. Density means how much “stuff” there is in something. Not the thing’s weight nor its size, but how many atoms it has in it. In our liquid rainbow, the dish soap is the densest layer and sits at the bottom of the glass, then the water is next, then the oil (which happens to be thick and can’t mix with water), and then the alcohol is the lightest in density. We are impressed with this one!
Make a Milk Rainbow
Supplies Needed
1 cup of half & half or whole milk
Food coloring (in any rainbow of colors)
Dish soap
Experiment
Let’s make a milk rainbow!
1. Pour 1 cup of milk into the bowl
2. Add 3 drops of one color to the edge of the bowl. Repeat with two other colors, placed in the other edges of the bowl. Be careful not to mix or jiggle.
3. Squeeze a drop of dish soap in the center of the bowl.
4. Watch what happens to the colors when the soap is added.
Results from our Soap Rainbow
Does anyone sell real liquid food coloring anymore? We just had the gels so we found that the liquid fell to the bottom in our first experiment The second time around, the dish soap was already added so I made a little mixture of gel food coloring with the water and then we poured it into our bowl. It was amazing to see how the colors stayed separate with this dot of soap in the middle. We learned that the dish soap does not mix with the milk. The dish soap floats on top and spreads over the surface. As it spreads, it grabs the food color we dropped into it. Where the colors meet, they combine to form new colors. We also learned, don’t do this with just gel food coloring. It produces a muddy river when mixed.
Make Rainbow Roses
Supplies Needed
Roses
Knife & cutting board (this part is for the grown-ups!)
Food coloring (any color of the rainbow)
Water
Cups
Experiment
1. Trim the ends of your roses under cool running water.
2. Have a grown-up cut the rose in half.
3. Fill glasses with water and lots of food coloring.
4. Stand roses up and take the two sections of the rose and place them in two different colors of water. Allow them to stand in this water for 24 hours.
Results From Our Rainbow Roses
Did you think it would look like this? These Rainbow Roses have been promised on Pinterest dozens of times when I am on there. No, our roses did not look like this at all. They, were just slightly tinted with color on the edges, and two of them died during the rainbow color attempt. It might be better to try this one with carnations or to not split the stems at all.
Nailed it!
Well, maybe not.
We still saw how the color traveled through the flower although it wasn’t as rainbow awesome as we had hoped.
We know we are guaranteed spectacular rainbows though when Legends of Oz: Dorothy Returns hits theaters, so we plan to catch a rainbow there with the whole gang! I am so excited to see it and can’t wait to hear what you think of the movie when it releases on May 9!
*This post is sponsored by Clarius Entertainment. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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