Paint with Bubbles!

Want to create some really unusual paintings? With a small container of bubbles and a little paint, your kids can put soap suds to work, and make some beautiful prints to hang on their bedroom walls, too!

Gather up the simple supplies and throw on some smocks. This project can get a bit messy, but preschoolers love to dip paper into bubbles and then watch them pop. And when the popping is done, voila! You've got a stunning work of art.

What You Need:

• 2 small bowls
• 1 cup of bubble soap
• plastic drinking straw
• 2 teaspoons of tempura paint (in two different primary colors)
• a whisk
• several pieces of white computer paper, cut in half
• newspaper

What You Do:

1. Divide the cup of bubble soap in half, putting 1/2 cup in each of the small bowls.
2. Pour one color of tempura paint in each of the bowls, then whisk the bubble solution and the paint together until it's combined. Let your child help!
3. Give your child the straw and ask her to blow on the straw into the bowl until she gets a pile of colored bubbles. Have her do the same for the second bowl.
4. Gently lay one of the pieces of paper over a bowl of bubbles, so the bubbles stick, then lift it carefully, laying it flat on the newspaper to dry, bubble side up.
5. Wait and watch. When the bubbles pop, the paint will retain a perfect outline of each bubble's original shape, leaving beautiful images of bubbledom!

Preschoolers love the anticipation of waiting for the bubbles to break and they'll likely be up for another round. This art project offers a great excuse to experiment with color combining. For the next print, let your child dip her paper in the first bowl, then the second. Ask what she thinks will happen when the colors mix. Then let her try it with different color combinations. it's an instant hands-on color science lesson!