We all love bubbles, but have you ever made Bubble Snakes before? Our kids never tire of making exciting wiggly Bubble Snakes and it’s been a favourite way to play that we’ve come back to again and again. This simple and cheap bubble activity is great fun for the garden or bath time and you’ll love how quick and easy it is to put together.
Bubble Snake Play For Different Ages
BABIES:
All ages can join in with a Bubble Snake activity. Our kids have been enjoying bubble snakes since they were babies! When they were really tiny we would make the bubble snakes for them and they’d enjoy touching and squishing them with their hands. It’s great fun to do outside, in the bath and on the high chair table top too. What a lovely sensory experience for them.
TODDLERS:
When the children were toddlers they were able to start trying to blow and make the bubble snakes themselves. Blowing a bubble snake can be quite hard work for a little one and they might need a bit of help to get started. It’s a fabulous way to strengthen all the muscles of the lips and tongue that are so important for speech development. Blowing bubble snakes also gives young children practise in creating a long sustained outward breath, again an important skill for fluent speech production.
BIG KIDS:
As children get older they are more and more able to blow the long fluffy bubble snakes themselves and you should see how they love to compete to make the biggest, longest, fluffiest bubble snake ever! Sometimes our children make such big ones they call them bubble clouds!
While you’re here check out our other outside play ideas too.
Supplies To Make A Bubble Snake Blower
- A clean empty plastic bottle
- An elastic band
- A piece of old towel or a flannel
- Washing up liquid
- Bowl
How To Make A Bubble Snake Blower
Remove the bottle lid and cut off the bottle base. (A bread knife works well.)
Cover the cut bottle end with a piece of towel or flannel and secure into place with the elastic band.
Squeeze about a cm depth of washing up liquid into the bowl and dilute with the same amount of water.
Dip the cut end of the bottle into the bubble mixture until the towelling is wet through.
Blow through the bottle opening and watch the bubbles snake down.
Making Multi Coloured Rainbow Bubble Snakes
Once your kids have mastered bubble snake blowing you can add to the fun by experimenting with adding colour too. You can add colour to your snake in different ways:
Water Colour Paints. Our kids love creating rainbow snakes by adding different coloured paint to the towelling fabric before they start to blow. you can do this by dipping it into paint or by using a brush to paint it on. If you use a variety of colours then you can create great rainbow effects and it’s fun to see the colours mix.
Change the colour of your soap mix by adding paint or food colouring. This will give you a bubble snake of a single colour.
Food Colouring. You’ll need to be careful not to stain clothes with this but it can give nice effects. Use droppers to add food colouring to the towelling. Like paint this method can give a multicoloured effect and you can keep dropping in different colours as you blow too.
Using Bubble Snakes To Encourage Children To Experiment And Question:
- What to kind of blowing works best. Is it short hard blows or long soft blows?
- If they are playing outside does the wind help or hinder?
- Is the wind strong enough to carry their bubble snakes away? What’s the biggest size that can be blown away?
- What happens to the bubble snake on the wind? Does it stay together?
We hope you have lots of fun with this bubble activity for kids, it’s been a firm family favourite of ours for years. Whether you’re in the garden, the bath or playing with it on the table top, blowing bubble snakes is a lovely sensory experience across the age ranges.
TOP TIP
Make sure young children know to blow not suck or they’ll have a horrible tasting bubbly surprise in their mouths YUK!
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