Bubble Fun Lessons

The Magic of Bubbles 

Bubbles bring out the joy in learning. Grab yourselves a bubble wand, and a ruler if you are especially ambitious, and have some fun with early math concepts.

Image of a person blowing a big bubble with the words: "Make magic and bubbles".

Big, Medium, Small

We use bubbles to discuss big, medium, and small. Each bubble only lasts a moment, so we must estimate quickly. 

Here is a song we sing about big, medium, and small. In this video we're organizing toys, but we also sing it as we're chasing our bubbles.

https://youtu.be/tBWkCvbUAS8

Pop and Count!

Our 2 year old loves counting as she pops bubbles. Her big sister blows them for her and they have so much fun. 

What made them excited about this activity? The idea came from a song. We thought others might also enjoy this calm little counting song from Super Simple Songs. Here's a link to the official song.

https://youtu.be/CyRNozcBASI

Frozen Bubbles

Have you ever tried blowing bubbles when it's cold outside? This was one of our favorite activities to do when we lived in Ohio. The bubbles would solidify and linger where they fell as magical frozen orbs. 

Surface Area of Bubbles

Have you ever tried calculating the surface area of your bubbles?

Hand your child a ruler and run around to quicky try to measure them before they pop! It's easier to do this activity when the bubbles are frozen.

If you can measure the diameter, just halve that to get the radius of the bubble. We can calculate the surface area of a sphere with the radius. The formula is 4πr^2 (four pi r squared). Can you calculate the surface area in your head as you chase around the bubbles? Can someone who is holding a calculator on the sidelines help out?

Activity: Bubbles.

Here is a little morning activity we did with bubbles a couple of years ago. Here's a photo of our table setup. We have a blackboard with the date written. Out alongside a bubble machine. In front of it are two mats, each with an activity. One has a simple math problem laid out with bubble jars while the other has a writing prompt and a lined white board for writing.

One bubble jar plus two bubble jars equals how many?

Let's take our bubble jars outside and blow lots of bubbles this morning. Let's use our bubble machine to blow bubbles, too. Then let's chase after our bubbles. Which bubbles are big? Medium? Small? Is that one bigger than that one? Now let's count them as they pop! There's a cluster of five bubbles and another cluster of two? How many total does that make? 

Let's write about the fun we had with bubbles.

Here's a photo of a child blowing a bubble.

Bubbles in Space

We know a bit about how bubbles behave here on Earth. We expect them to shimmer in the sun as they move in certain ways. But what happens to bubbles when we expose them to the microgravity of space? 

Did you know that water collects in big bubbles in microgravity? 

Here's a photo of JAXA astronaut Naoko Yamazaki with a water bubble. This photo was taken on the Shuttle Discovery as it was docked with the International Space Station in 2010.

Why does a plant space biologist like me care about how bubbles form in space? These big water bubbles make it challenging to water plants in spaceflight. The roots can get smothered by the water, leading to a condition called hypoxia. Making sure plants have easy access to water - and air! - is very important for growing healthy plants.

NASA Bubbles Lesson

Here is a "Teacher Toolkit" that features materials about bubbles in space from NASA. 

https://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/stem-on-station/learning_launchers_bubbling