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It’s safe to say, Pickle has found a love of all things science during lockdown. He’s watched that many episodes of The Fixies that he’ll happily explain to us how the radiator works, the washing machine and the toilet. I’ve heard that many songs about the body that I’m probably able to recite them in my sleep. In particular, he’s a fan of the digestive system. Of course, anything that can be related back to poop is always a winner.
Rainbows are also a hit in our house. If you ask Pickle what his favourite colour is? “Rainbow.” What colour do you want your bedroom? “Rainbow.” Although it’s recommended for ages 5+, I popped the Galt Toys Rainbow Lab Kit* on Pickle’s fourth birthday gift list as I knew he would love it. I figured if we did it together, I could make sure he was properly supervised for the duration of any activities and just increase the difficulty level as I saw fit. He was so excited when he opened it; the idea of being able to create his own rainbows was magical.
Rainbow Lab Kit Contents
The Rainbow Lab set includes:
- 3 x plastic test tubes, with blue screw lids
- test tube rack
- plastic goggles
- transparent colour mixing tray
- pipette
- polyacrylamide crystals
- 3 x food colouring bottles
- rainbow glasses
- 3 x plastic beakers
- filter paper
- plastic mirror
- mixing stick
- plastic scoop
- sticker sheet
- notepad
- 24 page Lab book (detailing the experiments)
I would recommend the additional purchase of a children’s lab coat (or, previously, we’ve just used an oversized white school shirt) or something to cover up clothes. The food dye has the potential to stain clothes.
Colour Mixing Experiment
The first experiment detailed in the booklet of Galt Toy’s Rainbow Lab Kit* is Colour Mixing. We began by filling up three test tubes with water. To eke out the activity and get him practising how to use a pipette, I got him to fill up the test tube using the pipette from a glass of water.
Once that was done, I used the food colouring included in the set to add five drops of each colour (red, blue and yellow) into each tube respectively to create our primary colours to mix with. This action alone was enough to get him excited, but then when I placed the mixing tray in front of him and told him to see what happens when he mixed colours together, he was eager to see the results.
Early Years Learning and Development
This activity is a great way to develop communication and language skills, and physical development as part of the Early Years Foundation Stage. By chatting through each stage of the process, you can encourage great language skills. I liked to ask Pickle what he thought might happen when we mixed specific colours together but also reversed the questioning to see if could then tell me what two colours made a secondary colour as well. Using the pipette is a wonderful way to practice fine motor skills, especially as using the small mixing tray holes requires precision and a gentle touch.
All the Fun in Pictures
Follow on Experiments
This is only the first of the experiments contained within the Rainbow Lab kit, so we still have lots of excitement ahead including Colour ‘Walking’, crystal growing and more. Until then, Pickle has been finding it hilarious to stuff his test tubes with playdough, and put on and off his rainbow glasses.
This Galt Rainbow Lab Kit was purchased from Amazon*. It is also available at Arogs, The Entertainer, John Lewis, and Hobbycraft, with a RRP of £12.99. For more exciting indoors activities to do with Early Years children, check out my Geomag Confetti review.
