What can be more fun for children in the summer months than water play? Your child’s water play can become educational play with the addition of a few simple ingredients. To the water add some soap and glycerin and you have one of times most tested playthings: BUBBLES!

BUBBLES lesson plan outline

What is a bubble?

A bubble is a thin film of liquid that surrounds a pocket of air. A bubble doesn’t have to be made of any particular liquid; however, most of us know “bubbles” as a mixture of soap, glycerin and water. We add the soap and glycerin because water alone isn’t flexible enough to wrap around air. Soap and glycerin are bendable but are thick and too heavy to make large bubbles. Adding soap and glycerin to the water makes the water bendable, and the water thins the soap and glycerin out enough to become lighter and make large bubbles!

The recipe for a large batch of bubbles:

12 C water
1 C liquid soap (non-antibacterial works best, use soap you would use to hand-wash dishes)
1 Tbsp glycerin (found at drugstores in the moisturizer aisle)

ASK: Have you ever noticed how bubbles have rainbow coloring? This is because bubbles are also prisms. A prism is something that reflects light and separates it into colors!

EXPERIMENT: Observe bubble action

Gather varied objects to blow bubbles with. Spoons, funnels, bubble wands, small cookie cutters, sifters and fly swatters are good choices!

Pour some bubble solution in a shallow pan and find a pencil and paper.

Choose an object to blow bubbles with. Wait! Before you dip that object into the bubbles write down what you think the bubble will look like and how you think it will act. Will it be square, round, maintain the shape of the cookie cutter? Will the bubble last for a few seconds or a few minutes?

Now, BLOW THOSE BUBBLES! Experiment with methods of making bubbles. You can blow bubbles with an air pump, run with a bubble wand and blow from different distances.

EXPERIMENT: Make a bubble blower

You probably noticed that your bubbles were always round in shape. Is it possible to make a bubble that isn’t round?? Let’s try!

Materials needed:
wire coat hangers
pliers
pipe cleaners

Use the pliers to bend wire coat hangers into different shapes. Use the pipe cleaners to create elaborate bubble blowers of different designs.

ASK:When you blow bubbles do they look any different?? Why are bubbles always round? Bubble are always round because they are "lazy", the water and soap solution will always make the shape that is most easily formed and held. While it is possible to stretch round bubbles into other shapes (try it, hint: coat your fingers with glycerin first!) bubbles will always be blown in round shapes and will always revert back to a round shape when the secondary manipulation stops.

JUST FOR FUN: bubble art

You will need:
food coloring
straws
bubble solution
white construction paper

Pour the bubble solution into several shallow dishes. Add food coloring of various colors to each dish of bubbles. Dip your straw into the colored bubble solution. Carefully blow a bubble onto the end of the straw, don’t blow it off the straw and don’t inhale! Lean over a piece of white construction paper (do not use copy paper or anything with a shine) and blow the bubble onto the paper and allow it to pop. Have fun blowing bubbles from different distances!


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