Age Group:
Any age as long as they can blow bubbles.
Material:
- Dish soap
- Water
- Food coloring
- Bubbles wands OR toilet paper rolls + mesh fruit bags or old socks OR pipe cleaner
- Big piece of paper
- Shallow pan or any shallow container
Step by Step:
Make the bubble solution with the recipe below and add food coloring or liquid watercolor of your choice. Choose what you will use for your bubble wand or bubble maker and follow the steps to make it. When everything is ready, set up your white paper and start blowing bubbles onto the paper. Then watch as the bubbles POP and leave the pattern/ shape behind. Have your child explore all the colors and just have fun with it. This is all about the process NOT the result.
Bubble Solution Recipe:
For best results you can mix these ingredients together.
- 1 cup water
- 2 tablespoons light Karo syrup or 2 tablespoons glycerin
- 4 tablespoons dishwashing liquid
Simply using dish soap and water works well too. So don’t stress too much if you don’t have Karo syrup or glycerin.
Choose your wand:
Toilet paper- if you have toilet paper rolls saved you can use this by putting fruit mesh bags over the top. Secure it with a rubber band or tape. You can also use toilet paper rolls with an old sock. Just place the sock over one side and secure it with tape or rubber band. These two options create two VERY different bubbles.
Pipe Cleaner- with your pipe cleaners create different shapes make sure to show your children how to close the shape so they can use it to blow bubbles.
Straw- you can use a simple straw to try to blow bubbles
Plastic bottle- you can use the top half of a water bottle and cut off the bottom half. You can use the mesh from a fruit bag and/r or sock to place over the larger opening. This method will be easier than the toilet paper roll method because the opening is smaller and will make it easier for children to blow the bubbles.
Objective:
Process art, geometry, chemistry, science ….all in one activity. This project is a great way for children to see surface tension. They can also experiment with the bubble solution and see what makes their solution better. If you choose to use the pipe cleaners as your bubble wand it is a great way for your children to see if the bubbles are ALWAYS the same shape. If the pipe cleaner wand is the shape of a star is the bubble a star?