POP! There is something just so magical about bubbles and my girls absolutely LOVE anything to do with bubbles, so when Immy came home from school recently declaring the bubble painting they’d enjoyed that day was the most awesome activity ever, we just had to give it a go!
It really is so simple, we used just two ingredients – bubble mixture and liquid food colouring – and my girls made painting after painting, and stayed engaged and busy creating for a very long time.
Bubble Painting with Bubble Blowers
You will need:
- Bubble mixture – we used a commercial mix from a bubble blowing set (similar to this one)
- Food colouring
- Bubble wands
- Cups and/or trays to dip your wands into
- Large sheets of painting paper
To make:
Simply tip a little bubble mixture into each tray or cup – one for each colour, and then add a little food colouring to each tray and stir gently – you don’t want to make too many bubbles in your cup because the bubbles don’t work so well when the mixture is all bubbly. We used red, blue, yellow and pink.
Then it’s time to blow bubbles! All over your paper.
Bubble Painting Hints & Tips:
- The activity is a little messy but our mixture did not stain at all, in fact it was really easy to clean up.
- We actually took it outdoors as I didn’t fancy bubble shaped splashes on my walls from any stray bubbles that my girls couldn’t help but blow up into the air!
- I would suggest wearing art aprons and covering work surfaces too.
- The effect the bubbles make on the paper is amazing and the experience was lots and lots of fun!
For even more fun activities exploring colour, check out Kaleidoscope.
This is STEM, art and literacy like you’ve never seen it before – dressed up in all the colours of the rainbow!
Kaleidoscope: Hands-On Explorations in Colour (and Color!) includes 25 awe-inspiring color activities that integrate learning across a range of subject areas, including the STEM topics of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, as well as art, literacy and cooking. This is a great resource for teachers, parents, camp organisers, youth and community group leaders, homeschoolers, out of school care educators and more. Click here to find out more.
Do you have a favourite bubbly activity that your children love?
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Christie Burnett is a teacher, presenter, writer and the mother of two. She created Childhood 101 as a place for teachers and parents to access engaging, high quality learning ideas.
Wow! I love the results of this activity! I’ve seen this done before but these are awesome! We played with a DIY Giant Bubble recipe last week (from happy hooligans in case you’re interested) and the first things the kids said was “next time let’s color the bubbles!” Thank you for sharing this. We’re off to buy bubble mix
Does it work on canvases?
I am not sure that the food dye would be intense enough to make much a lasting impression on canvas. Worth a try, though 🙂
Try using fabric dye (put a lot, so the colors are intense) – tried 😉
I think this would be a most enjoyable activity for most children. I love the creativity it inspires. It is so easy to prepare and to actually do. Thank you for another wonderful craft.
Hi Christie,
I like you’re idea with the bubble blower and painting a lot.
I’m a creative writer/blogger for a christian magazine in the Netherlands, named ‘de Gezinsgids’ (translated it means: Family-guide). Most of the time I write articles about crocheting. Mostly I design the patterns myself.
For this summer I have to write about some ideas to do with your children during the summerholidays. I would love to share you’re idea.
Can I use / translate your description and use your foto’s in this magazine?
I hope to hear from you soon!
Kind regards,
Erna van de Krol
This is such an awesome idea!! I will be trying it out this weekend!
i do crafts with special needs adults and i am alway’s looking for new thing’s this is cool
How is it done? Didn’t see that. Is there a mix of paint and soap?
What a great idea! I’ve done similar stuff before but this has turned out so well. We will definitely be giving this a go!
Hey I tried this with my group of kids today and the color didn’t show when the bubbles popped! We were super excited about it so I was wondering if there were any tips on what I should do to make it turn out better next time? I did as you explained.
Did you figure out why it didn’t work? I want to try this with my preschoolers so would love any advice. Thanks!
This is a really neat idea! I have 2 suggestions or teachers/therapists that might use this idea.
1) Please be very aware of children with allergies. I had 2 last year that were allergic to red dye.
2) A great extension of this activity to stimulate higher-level thinking is to have the kids do the activity. Let the bubbles dry, then have the student do a writing activity about what the resulting picture reminds them of (sort of like cloud-watching and identifying what shapes the clouds remind you of).