The Color Spectrum

Summary
This lesson plan introduces the color spectrum. Activity A is a simple coloring exercise designed to remind the children that the wave lengths of each color differ. Activity B gives them the opportunity to explain the concept in their own words.

Objectives
• The children will be able to explain that colors have different wave lengths and that, as a result, the colors of the rainbow appear consistently in the same sequence.

• The children will understand that the color of an object is the color it reflects and that the other colors are absorbed by it.

Suggested Grades
3rd Grade
4th Grade

Excerpt
When all the colors are mixed together they appear white. When this white light shines through a prism or a raindrop, for example, it is split up into its different colors. White light shining through the rain makes a rainbow. Each color in the white light has a different wave length and bends at a different angle. The colors split into the same spectrum every time. The color red has the longest wave length and violet has the shortest, all the other colors fit in between in this order: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet. Ultraviolet light has an even shorter wavelength than violet. Humans can?t see it but birds and bees can.

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