Bubble Fun!

Hi! This is Carolyn from Kindergarten: Holding Hands and Sticking Together. Our Kindergarten classes had a wonderful day with bubbles, and I wanted to share some of the fun with you. The Discovery Center, a local science center, came to show the children some fun things to do with bubbles. We had everything set up outside on the basketball court for our bubble centers. Everything we used was inexpensive and easy to find.

First we started with our bubble solution which was Dawn dish detergent and water. I read that if you make this and let it sit overnight, it gets stronger. (I didn't check Snopes on that one, but it's worth a try!)

We stared our lesson with lots of wonderful science vocabulary.

The children learned about solid, liquid, and gas, and what water looks like in each of these forms.

We talked about elasticity and explained that this is how bubbles are able to s-t-r-e-t-c-h.

The woman from the Discovery Center had the children try to think of something they wear every day that also has elasticity. The children were THRILLED to hear that it was underwear. You can imagine how silly they thought that was...

Cohesion was another vocabulary word the children learned. We asked the children if they thought anyone could put a hand through a bubble without popping it. We had many tries and no success. Then, we explained that cohesion is when molecules or tiny parts of something like water
stick together to make bigger drops of water. If your hand is wet, it can break right through the bubble without popping it. So we had our little scientist wet her hand with bubble solution, and stick it right through the bubble. This picture is from One Charming Party. I didn't get a good picture of the experiment.

This station let the children blow there little hearts out and make bubbles, and then measure how high they could blow a bubble mountain.

Bubble Painting was a huge hit. The pictures turned out looking like tie dye papers. Each bowl of bubble solution had a different color in it. After the children blew the colored bubbles, they put a sheet of paper over the top. Then, they went to a different color. We had LOTS of straws and a garbage can handy- and the kids were great about using it.

The children had fun seeing which things floated and which sank to the bottom of the bowl. It worked much better when they put in one item at a time, but... they got excited.

We had out a tray of pipe cleaners and cut straws. The children could build any size and shape bubble wand they wanted, and then try it out.

Success!

One favorite station was the hand bubble wand area. The kids were amazed that they were born with a built in bubble wand. So much fun!

The children learned that practically anything can be a bubble wand- hangers, straws, fly swatters, cheese graters... We had fun starting off with different shaped toys- like the triangle hanger or the square grid, and then noticing that no matter what shape the wand is, the bubble will always be a sphere. 

I have always loved this little fact... Just try it.

Remember it the next time you are feeling grumpy. Meanwhile, have a ball with bubbles!
I'd love you to stop over to my blog, Kindergarten: Holding Hands and Sticking Together. Thanks for visiting!