Peru- Rainbow Mountain

PERU: Rainbow Mountain, or Vinicunca in Quechua, has a unique composition–14 different, colorful minerals–that makes the mountain range appear like the inside of a jawbreaker. For more information on Rainbow Mountain, visit this link. Here are a few quick facts from the aforementioned site:

In class, students painted their own versions of Rainbow Mountain and/or tried to build a super high tower with blocks to represent the highest city (La Rinconada). One year, a class used this amazing, paint-pouring technique–see video below–to make a model of the mountain. This was crazy fun but really messy! Another student enjoyed the project so much that he painted Vinicunca on a canvas at home just for fun (see below). Wow!

This year, we organized Fruit Loops by color, stomped on and crushed them (in ziplock bags), and then sprinkled patterns on the frosting of a cake. Each student got one piece of cake to decorate a pretty pattern as their “Rainbow Mountain”, sort of like this cake. Later, we ate them, of course! If you prefer cookies, you could play with this idea instead, and just make stripes instead of stained glass.

LINKS: MyBestPlace- Vinicunca