Little Mr. J is our amazing bubble blower and bubble catcher. He can elongate the bubbles in his hands but when he blows them they are always spheres.
An inquiry into bubbles began at the wet sensory bin when he decided to use one of the cylindrical building shapes to blow bubbles in the soapy water. Another child noted that he was blowing circles. Little Mr. J. corrected her – he was blowing spheres! We have been exploring 2D shapes and 3D solids, so after a few minutes of complete bubble blowing enjoyment we decided to challenge these children – what might happen if we used different shapes to blow the bubbles? Now there were several all-knowing smiles – of course we were going to have cubes, rectangular prism, and triangular prism bubbles floating around our room. So after an excited search for the necessary shaped tools, four very determined 4 and 5 year olds began blowing. Although the bubbles emerged elongated or differently shaped, each bubble turned into a sphere as soon as it left the “wand”. This was unbelievable! We had to change the bubble solution mixture. Maybe there was not enough soap or not enough water in the mix. Maybe there was too much. These were very persistent children. They spent about 40 minutes trying different ways to make different shapes of bubbles. They accepted advice from other students but to no end. The bubbles were always spherical. We brought this dilemma to sharing time and after a demonstration, the other children were just as perplexed and an afternoon of determined bubble blowing ensued. We will have to see where this takes us next.
For more information about play and inquiry within the classroom please visit our website at;
http://www.journeytogetherfdk.com
Journey Together FDK 