A Soap Bubble Party
For the last time the soap packages were on the table Miss Dean and the children were sorry to end their soap talks, for they felt that they knew soaps well enough now to call them old friends.
“What have you been thinking that we can do to make our work with soaps and our exhibit still more helpful and attractive? asked Miss Dean.
“I think we could make posters that would tell the story of some of the things we have learned,” said Mary. “We could draw or cut out pictures and print a short story for each.”
“One poster could be about how soap is made,” said Peter.
“One could be about how soap cleanses,” Grace added.
“I’d like to make one about how soap helps us to keep well,” said Jimmy. “My Uncle Jim was talking to us about that yesterday.”
Miss Dean thought the poster plan was fine. So in a short time the class decided on groups to make certain posters.
Then Miss Dean said:
“Peter had a good thought last time. He said we might finish our lists of facts about soaps by adding the uses to which each soap might be put. What do you think about that plan?”
“I think we should each do that, Miss Dean, for our lists to take home,” said Mildred.
“Couldn’t we make a big list of facts, like a poster, to hang on the wall by the exhibit of soap packages?” asked Jimmy.
“That would be splendid,” said Miss Dean. “How shall we start such a poster?” And she went to the board.
“First, a list of the names of the soaps,” said John.
“I think we should know the prices, too,” said Mary.
“I hoped you would say that,” said Miss Dean. “That is very important. I wonder if there is anything else important about a package of soap, besides the price, in buying it?”
No one answered for a moment, so Miss Dean asked all to come to the table and see if they could find anything printed on the box or package which they had not noticed before.
“I see,” said wide-awake Grace. “It is the weight of the contents. This package says ‘Net Weight Five Ounces.’ That means the weight of the contents, doesn’t it?”
“Yes,” said Miss Dean, “net weight is the weight of the contents alone, without the container.”
“But here is another package which is larger, and it also says ‘Net Weight Five Ounces’ How can that be?” asked Tom.
“The soap in it is lighter, so that the same weight of soap takes up more space,” said Miss Dean. “That shows how important it is in judging soap to read all of the label.
“Another thing that is important in buying,” went on Miss Dean, “is to notice whether a large package of the soap, for instance soap flakes, is cheaper in proportion than a small package. Here is a large package, and here a small, of the same soap flakes. Which will really be cheaper to buy?” And she told the price of each, while the children read the net weight on the labels.
They all saw just how much they would save by buying the larger package.
“Now we can go ahead with our list or chart,” said Miss Dean.
In a short time Miss Dean had a chart outlined on the board which had headings something like these: --
”When we get this finished, may we invite our mothers to come and see our exhibit?” asked Mary. “My mother has been so interested in our soap talks.”
“And mine, too,” said several.
“My dad will want to come,” said Jimmy.
“Indeed we shall invite all the parents,” said Miss Dean. “Let’s make it a party.”
“And let’s call it a soap-bubble party,” said Mary.
Miss Dean had had her eye on the clock. Now she said:
“Time for assembly, class. And I rather think there is a surprise for you.”
When the class reached the assembly room, where the other classes were gathering, they took their seats and looked around, but no surprise seemed visible.
Suddenly the lights went out.
”Movies,” they thought, and began to watch the screen.
Presently the class saw the very soap factory they had visited. They saw the big kettles with their boiling masses of soaps, and the wonderful machines filling and wrapping the soap packages.
Then the scene changed, and they saw sheep on a great plain, thousands of sheep, and the shorn wool, and the machinery taking the wool through the processes which made cloth of it.
And then the silkworms. Real ones, squirming over mulberry leaves and seeming to grow bigger while they ate. But the most interesting sight was a worm inside of a cocoon which it was just beginning to make. They could watch its motions as it threw the silk back and forth as fast as it came from its body. Then rayon! That was an interesting part. The children watched the processes from the time the trees were cut down to that part of the picture which showed the threads of rayon being squirted out of tiny holes in a funnel-shaped machine. At that point nobody could keep still, it was so interesting.
A cotton field came next, with the cotton pickers hard at work under the hot, southern sun. The cotton went to the cotton gin, where the seeds were taken out, and the cotton was baled and taken to the steamboats or railroads, and sometimes right to the cotton mill where the cloth was made.
Flax, too, was seen in the field, with the men cutting the stalks close to the ground. That went through many interesting processes before it became tablecloths and napkins, and other linen fabrics.
Again the reel changed, and here were pretty dresses and sweaters, and many other things which need careful washing. So here the soap and the clothing came together, and the children saw these pretty things being washed in the right way, with the right kinds of soap.
“That was a dandy way,” said Jimmy, when they returned to the classroom, “for our soap talks to come to an end.”
Where would you like to go next? 
