Blowing Bubbles What You Are Going to Teach:Air is a real substance and has weight. Light sometimes changes color when it passes through water. Science can be fun.

Needed:

• Liquid detergent
• straws
• cups
• construction paper
• crayons

Put a small amount of soap and water into cups so that each child has a cup of soapy water. Dip the end of the straw into the cup, remove straw allowing the soapy mixture to drip once. Blow gently and produce a bubble. Talk about air being inside of the bubble. Talk about how the bubble has different colors because light changes when it shines through the bubble. Ask the children why they think bubbles burst when they hit the ground.

What to Talk About: Bubbles, pop, liquid, blow, colors, circle.

An Explanation of Principles: Light is broken into different wave lengths as it passes through water, allowing the different colors to be seen. Wet rings on the construction paper show that a bubble is composed of water surrounding air.

Bubble, Bubble" by Mercer Mayer--The illustrations show animals created by the bubbles a little boy is blowing.

Have the children cut out several circle shapes and create their own bubble animal/shape out of the circles.

Books:

Tomie dePaola's The Bubble Factory
Bubble Trouble by Mary Packard, ill. by Elena Kucharik (Hello Reader)
Grandpa's Secret Potion by Holly Hartman, ill. by Nina Ollikainen (HOMEPLAY)

Bubbles(Tune: Twinkle, Twinkle)
Bubbles floating all around (pretend to catch bubbles)
Bubbles fat and bubbles round (make a big circle w/ arms)
Bubbles on my toes and nose
(point to toes; point to nose)
Blow a bubble. ..up it goes! (pretend to blow bubble; point up)
Bubbles floating all around. (pretend to catch bubbles) Bub. . .bles
fall. . .ing to...the...ground. (sing slowly & sink to ground)

Use pipe cleaners to make bubble wands. They can bend into any shape and size and they work very well. Use string and straws. Use a large piece of string and thread on 2 straws. Tie the string at the ends. The straws become the handles. The children hold onto the straws, gently insert the string, pull up, and big bubbles are made. Other homemade wand ideas: berry baskets, slotted spoons, poatao masher, clean fly swatter, plastic rings from a six pack of soda

Put a little tempra paint in your bubble juice and blow bubbles outside while the children run & catch the bubbles on paper.

Paint and bubble juice in bowls. Have the children blow with a straw to make a mound of bubbles and then lay a piece of paper over the bubbles.

Put some liquid detergent in your water table with straws. (Remind them to only blow out.)

Put your hands in the bubble juice and place your pointer fingers and thumbs together (making a circle). Then you can pull your hands out and blow through your circle. You don't need a bubble wand!

Make whipped cream. When you first start mixing you can see the bubbles. As you continue to whip, the bubbles get smaller & smaller.

When they understand that whipped cream is just really small bubbles you can introduce shaving cream as the same concept. Put shaving cream on the table and let them smoosh it all over the table. You can add a little paint and then they can lift a print that way too.

BUBBLES

This is the way we blow (pretend to blow, rounding hands)
up our bubbles, (a bubble, spreading farther apart)
Blow, blow, blow.
This is the way we break (Clap hands together on each oh) our bubbles,
Oh!, Oh!, Oh!

MY BUBBLE

Here I have a new bubble (make circle with thumb and pointer finger)
Help me while I blow:
Small at first, then bigger (make circle with thumbs and pointer fingers)
Watch it grow and grow. (make circle with arms)
Do you think it is big enough?
Maybe I should stop;
For if I give another blow,
My bubble will surely POP! (clap hands)

Pop! Goes the Bubble(tune: "Pop! Goes the Weasel')
Soap and water can be mixed.
To make a bubble solution.
Carefully blow,
Now, watch it go!
Pop! Goes the bubble!

Can You Blow a Big Bubble? (tune: "The Muffin Man")
Can you blow a big bubble?
A big bubble, a big bubble?
Can you blow a big bubble,
With your bubble gum? [change to bubble wand?]

I'm A Little Bubble (tune: "I'm A Little Teapot")
I'm a little bubble, shiny and round.
I gently float down to the ground.
The wind lifts me up and then I drop.
Down to the dry ground where I pop.

Ten Little Bubbles (tune: "Ten Little Indians")
One little, two little, three little bubbles.
Four little, five little, six little bubbles.
Seven little, eight little, nine little bubbles.
Ten bubbles floating to the ground.

Here's A Bubble [they don't list a tune-"Where is Thumbkin?" seems to work]
Here's a bubble, here's a bubble.
Big and round; big and round.
See it floating gently,
See it floating gently,
To the ground; to the ground.

Paint with Bubbles:

• 1/2 cup Ivory Flakes
• 1/2 Cup Water
• Mixing Bowl
• Spoon
• Electric or Hand Mixer
• Food coloring
• Shelf paper or Butcher Paper
• A few small
• containers
• Newspaper

Books: Bubble Trouble by Mary Packard, ill. by Elena Kucharik (Hello Reader) Grandpa's Secret Potion by Holly Hartman, ill. by Nina Ollikainen

1. During circle I asked the children, "What is a bubble?" They all had a turn to dictate their answers as I wrote them on chart paper. The answers were pretty much the same.

2. We had free play with bubble solution. They weren't given any "tools" to use at first. They made bubbles using their hands only. One child stuck his hands, arms and shoulders in the bubbles. He loved the way it felt. After about 20 minutes (when they needed something new), we put out berry baskets, pipe cleaners, cardboard tubes, flyswatters, string, funnels and turkey basters (thanks for the ideas!). The children experimented with those until they had enough.

3. We read the story Bubble, Bubble by Mercer Mayer. It's a story about magic bubbles that turn into animals.

4. We made magic bubble pictures. The children cut out several circle sizes and colors. They glued the circles on black construction paper to make their own bubble animal. They told us about their picture and we wrote their words. Some of the children wrote their own words, depending on their ability and confidence. )

Tuesday -

1. We sang the "Bubbles Floating All Around" song that is sung to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. This song was on this loop. Thanks again!

2. We had about 10-15 minutes of bubble free play with the tools.

3. Bubble Colors- Each group of 4 students helped to make a table bubble. We placed a black trashbag on a table and coated it with bubble mixture. Using a straw, each group blew a bubble on top of the black bag. Next we placed a "bubble home" around each bubble. (To make a bubble home, we took 4 sheets of 8"X10" oaktag paper and stapled them to make a cylinder shape.) The contrasting colors of the black plastic bag and the white oaktag made the colors of the bubbles more prominent. We observed the bubble colors until it popped. The colors and patterns are very easy to see. We observed several bubbles in this manner. Some of the questions I asked them were: What colors and patterns do you see? What happens if you blow lightly on a bubble? Can you tell exactly when a bubble will pop? (I won't tell you what we found, but we (the teachers included) were amazed at what we learned.

4. Bubble Prints: We mixed bubble solution with lots of tempera paint and placed it in large margarine tubs. (Any shallow container would do.) Three children at a time would blow bubbles until the bubbles were higher than the rim of the dish. Then one child would take a white piece of construction paper and place it on top of the bubbles. We used blue, magenta and green for our colors and they turned out beautiful. (Someone on the loop asked about using food coloring instead of tempera. I used food coloring last year and it wasn't as bright as the tempera.)

Wednesday -

1. Bubble Windows: You'll need 2 straws and 1 yard of cotton string per child. Thread the straws onto the string and knot the string. Slide the knot inside one of the straws. When you hold one straw in each hand and spread out the string it should look like a rectangle. The children dip the bubble windows into the bubble solution while holding the straws side by side. As they take the windows out of the solution, they should slowly pull the straws apart. This will make a window of bubbles. Some questions I asked were: What happens when you pull your window through the air? Can you poke things through without popping it? Can a friend put his/her finger through the window without popping it? Can a friend put another window through yours?

2. We made Floating bubbles (another loopers idea. Thanks!!) It was a great fine motor activity.

Thursday-

1. We did a movement activity much like Ring around the Rosie. This was also on the loop previously. It was great fun!

2. We answered the question, "What do you know about bubbles?" and wrote the children's answers on chart paper. We compared these answers with the answers given on Monday. They were much more informative and diverse.

3. We folded coffee filters into a pizza slice shape and dipped them in a mixture of food coloring and water to make a bubble. When we unfolded their filters, a colorful tie dye pattern could be seen.

Bubble prints: We filled small containers with bubble solution coloured with food colouring. The children each had their own straw and blew bubbles in the container. Then a piece of paper was put on top to make a print . This was done a few times on the paper. We blew bubbles with little bubble blowers and also used bubble wands.

Bubble Experimentation

Bubble blowing naturally gives rise to scientific investigation. Your children will notice that not all bubbles behave the same way. Let your children experiment with bubbles and they may discover answers to some of the following questions...What happens if they blow hard? If they blow softly? What color are bubbles? Are all bubbles the same shape? The same size? If they touch a bubble what happens? How long do bubbles last?

Bubble Solution

• 3/4 cup Joy brand liquid dishwashing detergent
• 1/4 cup glycerin
• 1/2 gallon water

Have the children lay on their backs not touching anyone. Play soft music and have the children relax. As the children relazx blow bubbles over the children, encouraging them to let the bubbles land on them. Ask them what they feel like etc. This is a good activity right before nap or transistion to a more quiet activity.

Pictures made with bubble wrap for used for packaging--cut into small pieces and let them dip on paint and then press on paper -interesting designs and not the official liquid bubble but a variation on the theme.

It's also fun to put big sheets of bubble wrap on the floor and they can jump on them to pop the bubbles.

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