Bubble Mania – Use these Questions to Make Playtime Learning Time

My kids (personal children, not students – funny how teachers have to clarify that, huh?) are getting spoiled rotten by all of the family that they haven’t seen in two years.  They have had ice cream, gone to concerts, and received tons and tons of gifts, including nerf guns, books, sidewalk chalk, playdough and bubbles.  My dad bought them tons and tons of bubbles, which kept them so busy!

   While I was watching the kids play with the bubbles, I was thinking of all the things you can teach with bubbles.  Here is a list of what I came up with.

1.) Solids, liquids and gasses – How does the gas get stuck inside the liquid, making a bubble?  Why doesn’t it come out the other side?

2.)  Shapes – Bubbles are spheres, where else can we find spheres?  How do we find the area, circumference, or volume of a sphere?

3.)  Air Power – The wind takes the bubbles and floats them around – what controls where the bubbles go?

4.)  Imaginative Writing – Where do the bubbles go when they disappear?  What would it be like to float around in a bubble?

5.)  Respiratory System – How do we blow bubbles?  What’s going on in our body that allows us to blow out big bursts of air?

6.)  Scientific Method – Bubble mix will work if we add a little water, but not if we add too much.  How much water would dilute the bubble mix too much to make a bubble?

7.)  Procedural Writing – What are the steps one takes to blow a large bubble?  How are the steps for blowing a soap bubble different than blowing a bubble gum bubble?  How are the steps for blowing a soap bubble the same as blowing a bubble gum bubble?

8.)  Research – What is the largest bubble ever blown?  What is the most bubbles every blown at one time?  What is the largest bubble mix container in the world? 

9.)  Problem Solving – How do we make large bubbles?  How do the bubbles made by different bubble wands compare and contrast?  Can you make different types of bubbles using the same bubble wand?

10.)  Art – What do bubbles look like if you blow them onto different colored papers?  Can you make multicolored bubbles?  How?

 

As we are thinking about the beginning of the school year, we must not forget that the weather will still be nice, and kids will be disappointed to leave the “fun” at home.  Use some of these questions to build some fun, inquiry based, creative lessons into the beginning of the school year.