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Rainbow colour collectors
Cosmic and Gem are in the park. They go on a colour hunting expedition to collect the colours of the rainbow.

Resources
  1. Colour collecting palette - coming soon
Extra support
Whilst you may be growing fruit and vegetables in your garden, children should be reminded to come and ask you before they pick anything to eat. Children should not eat or taste any leaves or seeds that they collect during this activity.

In addition, not all plants are safe to touch: some plants have sap that is an irritant to skin and/or eyes.

Below are some common plants to be wary of:

Poisonous plants

  • Amaryllis
  • Bluebell
  • Daffodil
  • Foxglove
  • Horse chestnut
  • Larkspur/delphinium
  • Lily of the valley
  • Lords and ladies
  • Lupin
  • Opium poppy
  • Rhubarb
  • Sweet pea seeds
  • Poison ivy
  • Wisteria
  • Yew
Irritant plants

  • Daffodil (skin)
  • Giant hogweed (extremely severe skin irritant in bright sunlight)
  • Hyacinth (skin)
  • Leyland cyprus (skin)
  • Lords and ladies (skin and eye)
  • Poison ivy (severe skin irritant)
  • Tulip (skin)
How many colours in a rainbow?

At school, we often learn that a rainbow has seven colours (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet). In this activity we recommend that you use six colours (combining indigo and violet). People from different cultures and periods in history have identified different numbers of colours in a rainbow.

  • Newton originally (1672) only named five colours in the rainbow (red, yellow, green, blue and violet).
  • Later, he introduced orange and indigo - totalling seven colours, like the musical scale.
  • Some sources thought there were three colours (three is associated with the trinity - Aristotle).
  • Other sources use four colours (6th-7th century, and associated with earth, wind, air and fire).
 

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