* Bubble Fun Dawn dish soap Baby pool box or crate water hula hoop Bubbles are a lot of fun, but glycerin in the eyes STINTINGS! The best recipe of all is just DAWN dishwashing liquid and water! They make the absolute best bubbles! For lots of bubble fun...get a baby pool and fill it with bubble solution. Place a box or a crate in the middle that kids can stand on...get a hula hoop and place it over the box/crate and into the bubble mixture, then have a child stand on the box/crate. An adult can pull up the hula hoop and it makes a bubble as big as the kids and they are actually INSIDE the bubble! Kids love it! Take pictures! * We do bubble prints at our school. This is how we do it: Put dish soap(alot, you'll have to play with measurements), water and tempra paint in container(we use our easel paint cups). The child(or adult) blows in to the cup to make bubbles. " Take a picture" of the bubbles by putting a paper over the top of the cup. Caution...... talk about blowing out not sucking in the bubble water. Put a tray under the cup as this gets quite messy. Have a camera ready...It's a Kodak moment. * Here is a different way to do the bubble art, (we are going to try this at my son's birthday party next weekend. I hope it works! The whole party theme is BUBBLES!!). Combine food coloring and the bubble solution in a paper cup or bowl and have the children use straws to blow into the mixture until it froths. Gently lay a piece of paper over the bubbles, which will stick to the paper, and watch as they collapse and leave a colorful pattern. * Activity Fill a small wading pool with bubble solution. (combine 1 part liquid dish soap w/12 parts water and a few drops of glycerin or Karo syrup.) Use different bubble-blowing tools: plastic ringd from soda si-packs, for instance, or wands made from pipe cleaners. And what do you have if a child stands inside a hula hoop in the pool and you pull the hoop up around him? A human bubble! Snack Serve Bubble Cakes, which are cupcakes decorated with pink frosting and mini-marshmallows. A cup of milk goes great with cake, add a loopy straw for blowing bubbles!! * Several people have sent in Bubble Recipes. The one I usually use is from The Unbelievable Bubble Book by John Cassidy. This has lots of interesting info about bubbles. 1 cup Joy or Dawn 3-4 tablespoons glycerine 10 cups cold water (more on dry days) It works best if you let it set a day or so. I work with a large group so I usually pour it into large basins or dishpans and spread them out so that everyone has plenty of room. Be sure you are on a surface such as grass that won't get too slippery. High humidity is good for bubble making. For bubble makers we have had great fun with the plastic rings from soda pop six packs. Plastic hangers from childrens clothing (the kind with lots of enclosed spaces) also work well. We've also used tin cans with both ends removed - just be careful of sharp edges. I keep a pile of wash clothes and clean water handy for clean up and just in case someone gets soap in their eye. * I just finished making one of the large bubble wands. I'll try and explain the best I can but if you can't figure it out e-mail me and I try to explain it a little bit better. Here goes! You will need: an old cotton T-shirt or cloth a wooden dowel or pipe of some sort (PVC is probably okay but not too thick 1 inch thick) two large steel washers (or flat rings) 1. Cut the T-shirt along the bottom twice so that you have two strips of cotton fabric about 1 1/2 inch thick that are circular. 2. Cut both pieces so that you now have two long strips of fabric. 3. Knot the two strip together so that you now have one very long strip of fabric. 4. Thread the washer through the dowel. 5. Thread the fabric through the washer (the one that is threaded through the dowel) The dowel, washer and fabric should all be connected. 6. Tie the fabric to one end of the dowel. 7. Thread the other washer through the fabric and knot the two ends of fabric together so that you now have one circular piece of fabric and the washer is hanging at the bottom of the fabric. Now, the washer that is threaded through the dowel should be able to pass along the dowel from where the fabric was tied to it all the way down to the end of the dowel. The other washer should be hanging at the very tip of the fabric since this washer is what helps to keep the fabric steady. To make the bubbles: Slide the washer along the dowel to the end where the fabric was tied. (Be sure to let some of the fabric droop on the top part.) Tip the fabric into your bubble solution. Carefully take it out and begin to slide the washer along the dowel. You should be able at this point to see the soap film. Gently move the dowel so that the film begins to move and fill with air. When you see a bubble begin to form, slide the washer back to where you started to close the bubble up. I know this may sound hard but it really isn't and the bubbles that you get are huge. I'm not teaching now since school is out but my 2 year old had a blast watching us make the bubbles. Just a note: I say cotton fabric because I was told this would only work with 100% cotton. I'm not sure because I only use the 100% cotton fabric. * I use pipe cleaners to make bubble wands. They can bend into any shape and size and they work very well. You could also 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. * I have also seen pictures made with the 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. * bubble recipes: Immediate Solution His Master's Sauce 3 parts water 4 parts water 2 parts Dawn detg. 1 part Dawn detg. 1/2 part Karo Syrup 1 tlb. (per gal.) glycerine Let sit for one week before using. * My FAVORITE bubble wand is the flyswatter. Purchased a dozen or more of the cheap models at a dollar store. They make dozens of bubbles fly out all over the place. The kids are currently in to dipping the flyswatters in the soap mixture and then turning around in circles with the swatters held straight out. * 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. I like co-active art, so I use large sheets of bubble wrap on a table and the kids can paint the whole sheet together and then lift prints. It's also fun to put big sheets of bubble wrap on the floor and they can jump on them to pop the bubbles. Put some liquid detergent in your water table with straws. (Remind them to only blow.) 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. * Put a child inside a kiddy pool with the bubble solution in it. Have a Hoola Hoop and pull the bubble up making the child inside the bubble. * Bubble wand ideas.... Berry baskets make tiny bubbles Pipe cleaners shaped into circles Straws take a piece of yarn and string on 2 straws. cut string and tie. take the straws and make a square shape by bending straws then dip into bubble mixture. spin around and let the breeze blow the bubbles * BUBBLES This is the way we blow (pretend to blow, rounding hands as if holding 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)