Bubble Painting For Kids
Bubble painting is a fun art activity that kids of all ages will love!
Using a straw to blow paint bubbles is a fun way to make cool, bubbly prints onto paper and an great process art activity to try with your kids!
Bubble painting can be a little messy, but it’s worth it for the cool results!
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Bubble painting is a fun way to explore and experiment with paint!
This art activity required adult supervision, and is best done with preschoolers and older kids who know the difference between blowing and sucking!
The focus of this painting activity is definitely the process, but the results are beautiful too! Kids will love blowing bubbles into paint, hearing the fun sounds, and watching the mounds of bubbles rise up above the edge of the bowl! Watching the bubbles pop and print onto the paper is super cool too!
Bubble painting can be a fun way to work on oral motor development. Teaching kids the difference between blowing and sucking, and working the muscles of their mouth and tongue which helps with language development and eating.
Bubble Painting
Materials
- liquid tempera paint or liquid watercolours
- dish detergent
- water
- a container for each colour of paint
- Straws – enough for each child to have their own straw for each colour.
- Paper
- something to cover your work surface
- art smock or apron for each child
Bubble Painting Recipe
For each colour you’ll need:
- 3 tbsp of paint
- 3 tbsp detergent
- 1/4 cup water
Add the paint, detergent and water into a bowl and mix well.
We used liquid tempera paint for our bubble painting, with an extra splash of liquid watercolours to make the colours more vibrant!
Instructions
Bubble painting can get pretty messy so many sure you cover your worksurface well, and have the kids wear a good smock or old clothes. You might also like to have a damp cloth on hand to wipe hands and faces if needed!
Once you have mixed up your bubble painting recipe, grab a straw, hold it down to the bottom of the paint container and blow!
You’ll get a bowl full of colourful bubbles!
Gently lower a piece of paper down on top of the bubbles to capture a bubble print!
Lift the paper up gently and set it down on the table, allow any un popped bubbles to pop on their own – or pop them yourself, but be warned, you’ll get paint on you and the table!
If you are doing bubble painting for the first time with young children do lots of practice blowing down he straw instead of sucking! This can be really hard for little ones to manage so even if they appear to have it sorted you may way to help by holding the straw up the top and quickly pinching it closed at the first sign of a suck so they don’t get a mouthful of paint!
You can also try making a pin prick hole half way up the straw to hinder the sucking up of paint, but this won’t stop a strong suck!
This fun bubble art activity is going to be a hit with your kids at home, and in the classroom, so make sure you have lots of space to dry all their bubble paintings!
More Easy Art Activities.
If your kids love painting check out these awesome painting ideas for kids, or try one of these easy art activities:
Looks like lots of fun! I must try it with Safari, although I’n not sure which way she will blow in the straw. lol
great idea …though I bet S & J suck the paint too. I will have to try on a day when Daddy is home.
We love bubble painting, although I must admit I haven’t tried it with Mr 2 around.
Those prints looks lovely – I agree they would make fantastic cards!
They look great. I love the effect from the bubbles. Another easy one that is good for younger kids is golf ball painting. Use a slice tray, line it with paper, put some dollops of paint on the paper and let the kids roll the golf ball around in the tray. The dimples on the ball make an awesome pattern with the paint. And if you have a fold up clothes airer hang the artwork on that to dry with pegs.
I’ve been waiting for my daughter to get just a little bit older to do bubble paintings… they look so great! Would make nice wrapping paper too ;)
I just found you! And bookmarked you!
what a fab blog, and we’re about to go into NSW school holidays – all creative activity ideas very very welcome!
They look great – definitely great wrapping paper!
Great idea. The paintings are really pretty.
Thanks for sharing this activity Kate. I had never seen it before. Guess what we will be doing next week!
Okay, definately adding this to our school holiday activity list ! ta kate.
That looks like so much fun. I think we might have to have a go :)
Wow they look great. We tried this once but my son lost interest very quickly because they pictures came out so pale. I think I didn’t put enough food colouring in the water maybe?
I’ll definitely give it another go. :)
We love bubble painting too and have had our share of paint in the mouth!!!