Bubbles!

We had so much fun celebrating bubbles and all of the fun things that you can do with them. I wanted to share a few of the ideas that we did during the last week of school and throughout the school year using bubbles. 

First of all, we talked about the shape of bubbles. We looked at different types of bubble wands and talked about the size and shape each bubble wand would make. In the end, they all turned out round and that was a fun discovery for the kids. 

We also read the book, Bubble, Bubble by Mercer Meyer. 

 

It is a really fun book about a little boy who buys a bottle of magic bubbles that turn into different shapes when he blows a bubble. (Unfortunately, it is out of print so you have to order it from Amazon and it is hard to find new.) Then the kids drew pictures, if they had magic bubbles, what would they turn into. The kids drew things like princesses, unicorns, monsters, boats, etc. 

Of course we did our mega big bubbles again! It was windy so the going was a little tricky, but we still had a lot of fun. For a detailed post about how to do mega big bubbles, visit here. 

We have also done bubble art on our post here. 

   

Stay tuned throughout the summer for more bubble fun!

B is for Blue Bubble Art

We made blue bubble art pictures for letter B week and I have to start this post with a warning that this is a very, very messy project. At least it was when we did it. (You can see the paint splatters all over the table.) We used straws to blow bubbles into a solution and then pressed paper on the top to capture the bubble pattern. 

You can't see the picture as well in the small size, so click on it to see how they turned out. 

 Here's What You Need:

• Newspaper or plastic garbage bags to cover your work surface
• Baking dishes like a pie tin or a shallow casserole dish (I tried to use a cookie sheet, but it was too shallow, so I don't suggest it)
• White paper
• Plastic straws
• Bubble solution (store bought or homemade)
• Paint

Here's What You Do:

1. Cover your work surface with newspaper or plastic. 
2. Mix 1/2 c paint into 1 c bubble solution and pour it into your dish.
3. Submerge your straw into the solution and blow bubbles until they are towering above the rim of the dish. (For younger kids, you can poke a small hole halfway up the straw with a pin to prevent accidental swallowing.)
4. Gently press your paper onto the bubbles and then lift it up to see your pattern. If needed, repeat with the same paper until the paper is covered to your liking. 
5. If you want, you can try it with different colors on the same paper. 

MEGA BIG BUBBLES!

They're not big bubbles, they're MEGA BIG BUBBLES! It was so much fun doing these MEGA BIG BUBBLES! The "to do" part is pretty easy and the fun part is MEGA BIG! Alright, I'll stop being nerdy. It will be hard, but I'll try. ; )



Anyway, these work best when it is not windy. The great thing about these was that it was as much fun for me to play with as it was for the kids. The day we talked about bubbles, we looked at different sized and shaped bubble blowers and made predictions as to what size and shape the bubbles would be when we blew them. Then we went outside and tested our predictions.


Here's What You Need:

• A big container of bubbles or homemade bubbles
• Wire coat hanger
• Yarn
• Wide cookie sheet (It needs to be big enough to fit the bent hanger inside.)

Here's What You Do:

1. Bend the wire hanger into a circle. Make it as symmetrical as possible.
2. Tightly wrap yarn around the hanger circle.
3. Fill the cookie sheet with bubbles.
4. Put the hanger in and slowly lift one end out of the bubble solution until it creates a film across the whole hanger.
5. Move the hanger through the air and watch the beauty and magic!

A couple of quick pointers: Make sure to have a bucket of water near by to wash hands in. When these MEGA BIG BUBBLES pop, they pack quite a bubbly punch. Also, be careful when doing it on cement because if the bubbles spill, the sidewalk can get really slippery.