A Beautiful Book & Literacy Fun Bubble Art!
After reading “Alphabreaths: The ABC’s of Mindful Breathing” we decided to create some literacy fun bubble art! We made bubble print letter cards using tape resist art, wrote letters in bubbles, and practiced mindful breathing. I’m excited to walk you through how we made this incredible literacy fun bubble art, so let’s get started…
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Summary of “Alphabreath: The ABC’s of Mindful Breathing”
“Alphabreath: The ABC’s of Mindful Breathing” by Dr. Christopher Willard PsyD & Daniel Rechtshaffen and illustrated by Holly Clifton-Brown is a beautiful book with an important message. Each page displays one letter of the alphabet, adorable diverse characters, and teaches you a different strategy to mindful breathing. This book is so well done, we purchased it…which you might know is a rarity over here as we are #teamlibrary all the way, lol!
How We Made Literacy Fun Bubble Art…
We tend to keep the activities as simple as possible around here. We’re not interested in complicated or costly. We are also all about fostering independence. For this activity there are a few different options depending on how involved you want to get. All of the options begin the same way…making colored bubbles!
We love making colored bubbles, its very simple and brings so much happiness! We mixed dish soap, food coloring and water to make our colored bubble mixture (see the details below). I’ve recently become a big fan of the whisk; so that’s what we used to mix the contents together.
Now you might be wondering how much am I supposed to make or what size bowl? Well, that part is up to you. We experimented quite a bit during this project and came up with 2 different things we felt worked best for us.
Option 1: The Original Inspiration
Our original inspiration came from @cara_florance & @teachbesideme Instagram posts. They were using a ball point pen, a balloon, & a rubber band to write letters in bubbles! How cool is that?!
We tried this following the tutorial for “Make a Bubble Shooter Toy” found on Teachbesideme.com. Instead of using soapy water, we used our colored bubble mix that we just talked about. Because I had the idea of creating bubble prints; we had 3 regular sized bowls, each with its own color. Aside from the difficulty we faced getting the end cap off of the pen, lol, making the Bubble Shooter was quite simple and my daughter really enjoyed putting it together.
Next, she aimed the bubble shooter at the bubbles and we quickly learned that it can splatter, so be sure to place it all the way into the bubble mixture! She enjoyed making the colored bubble mixture pop up over the top of the bowls and popping the bubbles with her fingers. She loves blowing up balloons and thought blowing one up through a pen was quite cool too.
Overall it was a success, but I would suggest this as a better option for older kids as the logistics of blowing up the balloon, holding the air inside, aiming it at the bubble mixture before the air escapes, etc… can be a bit of a challenge; a good challenge but still something to consider.
We also dumped the colored bubble mixture in a tray because we realized in the regular sized bowls there wasn’t enough space to write letters. The tray (or a big bowl) would work really well for this though. If you clicked on the links above you might have noticed @cara_florance added letters to her bubble play, which is such a fun option we will probably try next time.
Option 2: The “Old School” Classic
Super simple…blowing through a straw! Remember when you were a kid drinking milk in a glass and then you began to blow and the bubbles erupted up to the top tickling your nose?! YEP, that’s what I’m talking about. My daughter loved this way of making bubbles too. She found it much easier to manage but it lacked the perspective of overseeing what the bubbles look like.
We tried this in regular sized bowls, a tray and a large mixing bowl. We definitely preferred the large mixing bowl for this as it created a bigger explosion of bubbles and easier bubble print making.
Which One?
Both are great in their own right & if you have the time, I’d suggest experimenting with both!
But If you’re looking for super simple and fun bubble process art, especially if you’re doing this with littles, I would suggest using a straw and letting them try and make the biggest bubble mound they can without it overflowing!
*Just be sure to test that your kiddo knows how to breathe out ( 😉 practicing breathing just like in the story!) instead of in as you of course don’t want them drinking the bubbles.
And if your looking for a super cool way to practice writing, work on fine motor skills, oral motor skills, sequencing, or your kiddo is older and likes making things then I would suggest using the Bubble Shooter!
Literacy Fun?
Aside from being able to write letters in the bubbles themselves, we decided to up the literacy component and create tape resist letter cards! Super fun and easy to make you can find all the directions below.
There are SO MANY uses for these bubble print letter cards that I decided to create a FREE Printable “Literacy Fun with Bubble Prints” has a bunch of game ideas you can play that will help reinforce your child’s literacy skills! Because it take a lot of time to create FREE printables and because I’m trying to grow a community of Bookish Play supporters, I ask that you take a moment and subscribe. You will get INSTANT access to the “Literacy Fun with Bubble Prints” & our ENTIRE library filled with easy to find printables.
I know, I know, you might be thinking “I don’t want more emails”… but I only send ONE Monthly! That’s right, unless something unusual comes up, I only send out just 1 email a month. So, what do you say?
Materials We Used
- “Alphabreaths: The ABC’s of Mindful Breathing” book (from the library or buy it here)
- Dish soap
- Food coloring
- Water
- Bowls
- Tray
- Ball point pen
- Rubber band
- Balloon
- Painters tape
- Watercolor paper
- Straw
Click HERE for Free Printable copy (Email Subscribers Only)
How to Make Literacy Fun Bubble Art?
- Squirt dish soap into a bowl.
- Add food coloring and water into the bowl.
- Whisk to mix contents.
- Decide if you want the bubbles in a bowl or in a tray.
*NOTE: we tried both, the bowl makes it easier to make a mound of bubbles which makes better bubble prints. But the tray is better to draw letters and designs. - Decide if you want to use a pen/balloon/rubber band combo or a straw.
*NOTE: we tried both, the pen/balloon/rubber band combo helps make more precise letters in the bubbles and allows you to take perspective on your work. But the straw made it easier to create more bubbles and is easier for littles. - Click here to access Teachbesideme.com’s tutorial on making the “Bubble Shooter” or get a straw.
- Cut watercolor or cardstock paper into desired size for bubble print cards, we folded the paper 3 ways horizontal & vertical and cut out 9 cards from one paper (which means you only use 3 pieces of paper to make the whole alphabet!)
- Rip painters tape a little smaller than the length of your cards. Tear each piece in half (to make it last longer). Use the pieces to form the letters of the alphabet. Be sure to press it down good.
- Blow bubbles with your colored bubble mixture and when the bubbles are almost overflowing hold the taped letter cards onto the bubbles, letting them pop on the paper. Repeat blowing and placing the same letter card onto the bubbles until you see lots of colored bubble prints.
- Allow time for the cards to dry. Then once dry, carefully peel the tape off to expose the tape resist letter!
- Play one of the many “Literacy Fun with Bubble Prints” games I’ve suggested in our FREE printable! (In fact there are 2 versions, one colorful for display on a device & one that uses much less ink if you print it out!)
*TIP: Laminating these cards would help them last a long time!
Click HERE for Free Printable copy (Email Subscribers Only)
Wait, There’s More…
I believe you can easily strengthen communication skills and foster independence all while playing and connecting with your child. To help you do this; I’ve created a FREE printable for each activity called, “Communicating & Connecting”.
It will give you a list of suggestions I’ve found very helpful as a Mom & as a special education teacher; to help you build lifelong skills. Please don’t feel obligated to do everything on the list (but if you do, you’re a rockstar 😉 ).
As a Thank You for subscribing; this is a special FREEBIE for our Email Subscribers Only. 🙂 Click here if you’ve already subscribed. Otherwise, Sign Up below to get the password & access to our entire FREE Printables Library today! 😉
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