Tag Archive for: EYFS

Water filters

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Water filters

Make your own filter and clean up some dirty water.

Overview


Water must be clean so that it is safe to drink. One of the ways our water is cleaned is by filtering. In this activity you will make your own filter and clean up some dirty water, using an empty bottle and a coffee or paper filter.


Printable version

This page will print, but won’t look great. Click the button for a print-friendly PDF version.


What to do


Step 1



Children in EYFS Before you start, you may want to listen to the story on the left called Hey, Water! by Antoinette Portis. This non-fiction picture books shows how water is all around us, but can take different shapes and forms.

Step 2



First make some dirty water. Collect some dirt (mud, leaves, grass, stones etc) from outside in a container. Add water and stir.

Step 3



Take the label and lid off your bottle. Squash your bottle flat about a quarter of the way from the top. Cut the top part of the bottle off.

Step 4



Put the top part of your bottle into the bottom part with the lid end facing the bottom. This will make your filter. Put your coffee filter inside your filter. If don’t have a coffee filter you can make your own, see the “Other things to try –  filtering using different materials” section below.

Step 5



Carefully pour the dirty water into your filter and watch the clean water come out of the bottom of the funnel.

Step 6



Look at the difference between your dirty water and your filtered water. Is the filtered water any cleaner?



Things to discuss

Take a look at what you can see left in your filter paper. How do you think a filter works?




How it works

When you poured your mixture of dirt and water through your filter, the water could pass through the tiny gaps in the paper but the dirt (soil, grass, leaves, gravel) particles are too big and are left on the surface of the filter paper. The water that passes through the filter is called the filtrate and the dirt that is left on the filter paper is called the residue. 

Although your water might look clean(er) it is still not safe to drink. You have removed some of the solid dirt, but there is still dirt in the water that you can’t see. This includes bacteria, parasites and viruses which can make you very ill.

To find out more about how our drinking water is cleaned, younger children might like to watch this episode of BBC’s Maddie do you know? and older children might like to look at the water treatment process on the Thames Water website.



Other things to try- filtering using different materials

Step 1



Choose some materials you would like to test as filters. You could try fabric, card, foil, kitchen towel- anything that you can make into a filter shape. You will need about 20cm by 20cm of each material to make your filter.

Step 2



Put the top of your bottle onto the middle of your material. Draw around the bottle leaving an extra 2 – 3cm of your material around the bottle. Cut out the circle.

Step 3



Fold the material into quarters. Open out and cut along one of the fold to the centre point.

Step 4



Slide the paper on one side of the cut on top of the paper on the other side of the cut so that a funnel is formed.

Step 5



Put the filter paper into your funnel and pour in your dirty water.

Step 6



Repeat the investigation using filters made from different materials. Remember to rinse the top and bottom of your plastic bottle filter each time so you don’t have any dirt remaining from the previous filtering.  You could pour each lot of filtered water into a different container so that you can compare it at the end.



Other things to try

Record your investigation in a table



You might want to predict which material you think will make the best filter before you begin, and record which filter produced the cleanest water.

To make it a fair test, mix up a large amount of the dirty water solution before you start and pour the same amount of water into each filter paper.


Time how long it takes for each material to filter the water


Do some materials take longer than others to filter the water? Use your watch, a timer on a phone or a kitchen timer to record how long it takes to filter your water. Do the filters that take the longest produce the cleanest water?



Make a more efficient water filter


Try this homemade filter on the Lovetoknow.com website. You will need gravel, sand and activate charcoal in addition to the equipment you have been using.

More STEM at Home


What you’ll need

  • An empty 2 litre pop bottle (any size will do but 2 litre is easiest to put the filter in)
  • A coffee filter or circle of paper (sugar paper or an old brown envelope) with a diameter of about 20cm
  • Scissors
  • Dirty water (mix mud, grass, leaves and small stones from your garden with water
  • An old container to mix this in
  • A stirrer (a stick or old wooden spoon)

Duration

20 minutes or so.

Suitable for…

Age 3 and up.

Safety notes

You know your children better than anyone, and you should judge whether they’re ready for this activity. You might want to think in particular about:

  • Supervision: you you might want to supervise children when they are cutting the bottle and watch out for sharp edges.
  • Always wash hands after touching dirt and avoid touching your mouth or face.
  • Thoroughly wash any containers or stirrers used in this activity before using again for other purposes.

WARNING!

Do not drink your filtered water- it needs a lot more treatment before it is safe!


Does everybody in the world have clean water to drink?

We are lucky in this country to have clean water pumped straight to our taps. Did you know that 1 in 10 people in the world don’t have running water in their houses? They need to collect it each day from rivers, ponds and lakes. This water isn’t clean or safe. It is sometimes shared with animals. It can be full of dangerous diseases.

Visit the wateraid website to find out a lack of clean water stops people from having an equal chance to be healthy, educated and financially secure.


Careers Link – Water Quality Scientist

Water quality scientists ensure water quality standards for safe drinking water are met. They test and analyse water samples and ensure these meet the water quality standards. They may specialise in working with drinking water, ground water or surface water including rivers, lakes and estuaries.  Water quality scientists may need to work closely with businesses, the public or other water industry professionals.

Attributes: communicator, logical, observant


Meet Laura Wilkinson

Laura is a Technical Advisor for the waste water project team at Northumbrian Water. Watch this video to find out more about her work.

Growing seeds

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Growing seeds

Why is water so important to plants? Watch how seeds sprout and grow in this activity.

Overview


Have you ever wondered what happens to seeds when we add water to them? Do you know what seeds look like as they start to grow underneath the soil? To observe this, all you need is a clear freezer bag, paper towel, staples and some seeds.


Printable version

This page will print, but won’t look great. Click the button for a print-friendly PDF version.


What to do


Step 1



Before you start, you may want to listen to the story on the left called Little Cloud by Anne Booth. It is a great introduction to the water cycle and to understanding why water is so important for plants and animals to grow and survive.

Step 2



Take your sheet of paper towel and place it inside your plastic bag. Try to get it as flat as possible.

Step 3



Place your plastic bag on your stapler, with the bottom of the bag as near to the hinge as possible. Put a staple in the bag as near to the edge as you can.

Step 4



Put staples all of the way across the bag. Try to get the staples as close together as possible. This will make a ledge for the seeds to grow on. The roots should grow downwards underneath the staples and the shoots should grow upwards.

Step 5



Carefully sprinkle your seeds onto the staples. Make sure the seeds are all on the same side of the paper towel and that they are spread evenly across the bag.

Step 6



Add a small amount of water to your bag. This should all be absorbed by the paper towel.

Step 7



Put your seed bag in the light and observe the seeds each day. You could use magnets to stick your bag to your fridge or sticky tape to stick your bag to the window. Check to make sure that your paper towel remains damp.


Things to discuss

  • Have the seeds changed? How have they changed?
  • Can you see any shoots or roots?
  • Which direction are the shoots growing in? What about the roots?
  • Why do you think we need to keep the paper towel wet?
  • Why do you think we need to put the bags in the sunlight?
  • What else do you think the seeds need to grow?


How it works

In order for a seed to grow, it needs to germinate. For germination to happen, a seed needs water.

A seed contains an embryo, a young plant waiting to be activated to  grow, and a food source, where the embryo gets it’s energy to grow. These are surrounded by the seed coat to protect them.

A seed is dormant or not active until conditions are just right for germination and for the plant to survive.

When a seed gets wet, it soaks up the water and this activates the release of energy from it’s food store. The embryo swells and gets longer.

Next, the embryo breaks through the seed coat. The root is activated and pushes downwards, then the leaves break out and the shoot is activated.

Watch the clips below to watch this happening.




Other things to try

Where is the best place for seeds to grow?





Why not investigate growing seeds in different parts of your home? You could try a putting your seeds on a window or in a room at the front and at the back of your home and record which seed bag grows fastest or which shoot grows taller.  You could investigate what happens if you put your seeds in a dark cupboard. How about if you put your seed bag in the fridge or in the bathroom?



Observing clouds





You will need:

  • A cloudy day
  • Something to draw with (white or grey chalk is great but pencil or crayon would work too)
  • Something to draw on (blue or dark coloured paper works well, but any paper or the paving works too)
  • Pictures of different clouds. You can download our cloud identification guide here.

What to do:

Stand, sit or even lie down on the floor and look up into the sky and carefully draw the clouds you see. You could ask:

  • What colours are the clouds?
  • Are the clouds moving or still?
  • What do you think is moving them?
  • Can you see any shapes in the clouds?
  • What do you think the clouds would feel like if you touched them?
  • Do you think it is going to rain? Why?

Use the cloud guide to identify the clouds you can see. Cumulonimbus and nimbostratus are rain clouds. Do you think it will rain today?

You could also compare the drawings made of clouds on different days or make a cloud diary and record whether it rained or not that day.

More STEM at Home


What you’ll need

  • A clear, plastic freezer bag- any size is fine
  • One sheet of paper towel
  • A stapler and staples
  • Seeds

Duration

10 minutes or so plus growing time

Suitable for…

Age 3 and up

Safety notes

You know your children better than anyone, and you should judge whether they’re ready for this activity. You might want to think in particular about:

  • The activity involves small items (seeds and staples) so there’s a choke hazard.
  • The activity involves a plastic bag so there’s a suffocation hazard.
  • Smaller children may put seeds and staples up their noses and in their ears.
  • Watch out for fingers when using the stapler!

Careers link: The Meteorologist

Meteorologists need to know what the weather is doing now, calculate how this will change in the future and use their expert knowledge to refine the details. Meteorologists:

  • Observe and record the weather 24 hours a day across the globe and combine this with satellite pictures to see how the Earth’s atmosphere is behaving: in terms of temperature, precipitation, air pressure and cloud cover.
  • Use thermometers to measure temperature, barometers to measure air pressure and anemometers for measuring wind speed.
  • Use weather balloons to measure temperature, air pressure, wind speed and wind direction in the troposphere, the lowest layer Earth’s atmosphere and where almost all weather conditions take place.
  • Feed the weather data collected into a supercomputer that performs complex equations to create models that predict the future weather.
  • Check their models to make sure their forecasts are going to plan and adjust them where necessary.

Did you know that some weather presenters on television and radio are meteorologists?

Constellation Tubes

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Constellation Tubes

Build your own constellation telescope and look up to the stars!

Overview


Do you want to look at the stars but don’t own a telescope? Make a constellation tube and you can see the stars whenever you want to. All you need is a cardboard tube, a sharp pencil, scissors, glue and our constellation printout.


Printable version

This page will print, but it doesn’t look great. Click the button above for a print-friendly PDF version.


What to do


Step 1



Before you start, you may want to listen to the story on the left called Look Up by Nathan Byron. The story is about a young girl who spends her days dreaming of the stars and sharing her passion with anyone she meets.

Step 2



Print out the constellation tube sheet. Choose a constellation pattern and cut it out.

Step 3



Use your pencil or skewer to poke through the star into your sticky tack to make a hole. Continue to poke through all of the stars in your constellation pattern.

Step 4



Glue on top of the rim of one end of your tube and stick the constellation pattern in place.

Step 5



Now look through the open end of your tube to see your constellation.



Things to discuss

  • Can you see the light clearly through your holes?
  • What happens if you make bigger or smaller holes?
  • Look at the names of your constellations. Does the pattern you have created look like an animal or person?


How it works

In ancient times, people saw patterns of stars in the sky and told stories about them. You may have heard of some of these, such as Orion the hunter, Gemini the twins, or Taurus the bull.

Different cultures had different stories about the constellations.

Younger children might enjoy the song below which tells you all about this. When astronomers made maps of the stars they included these patterns on their maps and called them constellations.

The individual stars in a constellation may appear to be very close to each other, but they can actually be separated by huge distances in space and have no real connection to each other at all.

Different constellations can be seen depending on where you are on the Earth and different constellations can be seen at different times of the year.




Other things to try

Project your stars!



If you have a torch, you can shine this into the open end and project your constellation onto a wall.



Online planetarium


Click here to visit an online map of the sky that will show you what you can see in the sky right now.  You can change the location so that the planetarium shows you the sky above your house. You could also watch the video  below to find out about the night sky. Use this to help you spot stars and planets from your back garden.


More STEM at Home


What you’ll need

  • A toilet or kitchen roll tube or rolled up piece of card or paper
  • A print out of our constellations sheet
  • Scissors
  • A sharp pencil, pen or skewer to make holes
  • A small lump of sticky tack, playdough or plasticine to help make holes
  • Glue or sellotape

Duration

10 minutes or so.

Suitable for…

Age 3 and up.

Safety notes

You know your children better than anyone, and you should judge whether they’re ready for this activity. You might want to think in particular about:

  • Supervision: a sharp pencil or scissors could cause injury.
  • Glue can damage carpets.

Careers Link: The Astronomer

Astronomers are a type of scientist that study objects in space. They use telescopes, satellites and spacecraft to collect data and use this to help us understand events in the universe. Visit our Astronomer activity page for more information and activities.

Attributes: open-minded, self-motivation and patient.



If you become an astronomer, you might work in an observatory like this one in Kielder.

Make Paper Aeroplanes

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Make Paper Aeroplanes

Make paper aeroplanes that you can fly and test at home.

Overview


In this activity, you will make planes using paper. Then you’ll test how fast and far they can fly.

All you need is paper, timer, tape measure, somewhere inside to test the plane.


Printable version

What you’ll need

  • Paper
  • Timer
  • Tape measure
  • A place to test the plane

Duration

20 minutes or so.

Suitable for…

Age 4 and up.

Safety notes

You know your children better than anyone, and you should judge whether they’re ready for this activity. You might want to think in particular about:

  • Do not fly your plane towards someone; the front bit of the plane is pointy!
  • Be cautious of the paper you are using, you could get a paper cut.


What to do


Before you start, you  might want to listen to the story on the left as inspiration for your paper aeroplanes. It is called Violet the Pilot by Steve Breen. The story is about a young girl with a gift for engineering, who uses her creativity and hard work to build flying machines.

Step 1



Use a piece of A4 paper. Fold the paper in half to make a long thin rectangle. This makes a crease in the centre.  Now unfold the paper.

If you want to watch how to fold the plane instead, this video might help.


Step 2



Fold both top corners so that they meet the centre line.

Step 3



Fold the new left and right corners to the centre line.


Step 4



Fold plane in half from right to left.

Step 5



Now fold one edge back out to make a wing. Use your fingernail to help make the tip as pointy as possible. Turn the plane over, then fold other wing to line up with the first wing.


Step 6



The final step is to unfold the wings slightly so that it looks (a bit) like an aeroplane.

Testing the plane



You’re ready to start testing your plane.

Put your tape measure on the floor.  This is your test-flight area.  It’s sensible to test the planes somewhere out of the way of other people.

Stand at one end of the tape measure. Carefully launch your plane so that it flies along above the tape measure.  When the plane lands, you can then measure how far it flew.  You’ll need to try a few throws to get an average distance.

You can make different size planes by using smaller rectangles of paper.

Try to predict which plane will fly furthest.

Fly your aeroplanes, and record the distance of each flight to the nearest cm.

Which went farthest? Was your prediction right?



Things to discuss

You could ask questions like:

  • What do you think will happen when you throw the aeroplane?
  • Which planes flew the farthest distance and why?
  • Which planes flew the fastest and why?
  • Does the type of paper affect a paper aeroplane?
  • Can you try to design a different shaped aeroplane? What will happen then?



How does it work?

As your paper aeroplane glided through the air there were 3 forces acting on it: weight, drag and lift.

Weight pulls the plane towards the ground, drag slows it down as it glides through the air, and lift kept the plane in the air for longer.





Other things to try

Learn how to make other paper planes such as: a Star crusher plane, Spy plane, Headhunter plane.

Once you have made your planes you could test them all to see which one flew the furthest.


More STEM at Home


What you’ll need

  • Paper
  • Timer (a Smartphone works perfectly)
  • Tape measure (you could pace out the distance instead)
  • A place to test the plane

Duration

20 minutes or so.

Suitable for…

Age 4 and up.

Safety notes

You know your children better than anyone, and you should judge whether they’re ready for this activity. You might want to think in particular about:

  • Do not fly your plane towards someone; the front bit of the plane is pointy!
  • Be cautious of the paper you are using, you could get a paper cut.

Careers Link: Aerospace Engineer

Aerospace engineers design, build and maintain aircraft, spacecraft, satellites, and missiles. They may be involved in creating and testing prototypes, researching ways to make fuel efficient parts, developing navigation systems, or supervising the manufacture and maintenance of aircraft or spacecraft.

Attributes: creative, passionate, tenacious

Foil Boats

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Foil Boats

Design and build a boat from tin foil that can hold as many pennies as possible before sinking.

Overview


In this activity, you’ll build a simple boat using tin foil. Then you’ll test well it floats by adding pennies, or other small things. to see if it sinks.

All you need is tinfoil, some coins, and a container filled with water.


Printable Version

This page will print, but looks a little funky. Click the button for a PDF version which looks a bit better. This is a stop-gap while we work on a better solution!

What you’ll need

  • Tin Foil
  • Scissors (or you can tear the foil)
  • Pennies (or something heavy to sink your boat)
  • Shallow plastic container or a sink that can hold water (or the bath!)
  • Water
  • Towel

Duration

30min to an hour

Suitable for…

Age 3 and up.

Safety notes

You know your children better than anyone, and you should judge whether they’re ready for this activity. You might want to think in particular about:

  • Supervision: the activity involves pennies, so there’s a choke hazard.

What to do


Step 1


Use the scissors to cut the foil into a square.  If you don’t have scissors, you can carefully tear it into a square. The foil squares can be any size you like, and you don’t need to be exact. Later, you might try making another bigger or smaller boat.

Step 2


Fold the edges of the foil to form a boat shape. If you want to try out different shapes, you could use different types of boats. Or you could draw pictures of boats before you start building.

Step 3


Carefully half-fill your container with water and put it on a towel to soak up any spillages. If you’re making a bigger boat you could float it in the sink or bath.

Step 4


Gently, put your boat in the water. Well done if it floats!

Now add pennies (or other coins) one-by-one in the boat until it sinks! Make sure you count how many pennies it takes for the boat to sink, this will help you work out how good it is.

You could write down your results in a table like the one in the picture.

Step 5


Completely sunk?!

Try again.

Can you hold more coins with a different boat design?

Keep a record of your results using your table.

How does it work?


When your boat was floating on the water there was one force pulling it down due to gravity (the weight) and another pushing it up called buoyancy.  To work out whether your boat floats we need to think about how heavy it is and its shape.

To start with your boat was light but it got heavier as you added pennies. So how could it hold so many pennies? The shape of the boat is important, a shape which contains lots of empty space (like a boat) will be good at floating because it’s able to push more water out of the way. This makes a bigger buoyancy force keeping the boat from sinking. But when more pennies are added, the weight of the boat becomes bigger than the buoyancy force and the boat sinks.

Things to discuss


Ask questions to get your child thinking about why objects sink or float:

  • How many pennies was your boat able to hold? Did it matter how or where you placed the pennies in your boat?
  • After testing your boat, did you make any changes to the shape of your boat?
  • What shapes seemed to work the best?
  • What could you change to make your boat hold more coins before sinking?

Other things to try


Your first boat was made of tin foil. Now try:

You can test these other boats in same way, by adding pennies or small objects. Record your results so you can work out which is the best boat.

More STEM at Home


What you’ll need

  • Tin Foil
  • Scissors (or you can tear the foil)
  • Pennies (or something heavy to sink your boat)
  • Shallow plastic container or a sink that can hold water (or the bath!)
  • Water
  • Towel

Duration

30min to an hour

Suitable for…

Age 3 and up.

Safety notes

You know your children better than anyone, and you should judge whether they’re ready for this activity. You might want to think in particular about:

  • Supervision: the activity involves pennies, so there’s a choke hazard.

Watch the story together

Sit down and watch the story ‘Who sank the boat’. If you can, find somewhere comfortable and watch it together.



Careers link – naval architect

Naval architects design, engineer and manufacture boats, ships, oil rigs… they care very much about what sorts of things float. They also sometimes care about the sorts of things that sink – naval architects design submarines, too!

Attributes:

Naval architects are curious, organised and creative.


Blowing bubbles using a straw

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Indoor Bubbles

Use things you can find in your kitchen to blow huge bubbles on your table!

Overview

We all love bubbles. This activity allows children to make their own bubble solution by following a few simple instructions. You need a couple of spoons, a cup, a straw (a tube from a pen or a Calpol syringe work too), warm water and a little sugar, along with some washing up liquid. The great thing about these bubbles is that they stay in one place so you can play indoors without making a mess!


Printable version

This page will print, but looks a little funky. Click the button for a PDF version which looks a bit better. This is a stop-gap while we work on a better solution!

What you’ll need

  • Two cups
  • A tablespoon and a teaspoon
  • Sugar (half a teaspoon)
  • Washing up liquid (about 1 teaspoon)
  • Warm water
  • A straw (a tube from a pen, Calpol syringe or rolled up paper will work too!)
  • Bin bag (this is to protect the table you are using)
  • A table

Duration

30 minutes or so.

Suitable for…

Age 4 and up.

Safety notes

You know your children better than anyone, and you should judge whether they’re ready for this activity. You might want to think in particular about:

  • Check the temperature of the water. It only needs to be warm enough to touch, no hotter.
  • Make sure all objects to be used as straws are very clean before they are put into mouths.
  • Don’t let children taste or drink the bubble mixture.
  • If any washing-up liquid gets into a child’s eye, rinse with water. Get the child to lie on their back near a sink or bath and gently pour cool water from a jug, or similar, over the open eye continuously for 10 minutes.
  • Children who are allergic or sensitive to soap or detergent products should not do these activities.
  • Ensure children wash their hands after the activity.

What to do

Step 1 – Making the bubble solution

Put 40mls of warm water in a cup – that’s about 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons.

Add 1 teaspoon of washing-up liquid, and stir gently.

Find a clean, flat surface to use – this could be a table, plastic mat or plate. If you’re using a table, lay out a plastic bin bag to protect it from the bubble mixture. If you’re outside, you might want to tape or weigh it down to make sure it doesn’t blow away.

Wet an area about 10 cm across by dipping your fingers into the bubble mixture and spreading it on to your surface. Then try blowing bubbles – see Step 2.

If your mixture doesn’t work, try adding half a teaspoon more washing up liquid to the mixture. You could also try dissolving ½ a teaspoon of sugar into your mixture.

The type of washing-up liquid also affects your bubbles: Fairy liquid is good, as are many supermarket own-brand products. But some brands just don’t work too well. If you’re out of luck with your washing-up liquid, try bubble bath if you have some.



Step 2 – Blowing bubbles

Dip one end of your straw or tube into the bubble solution so it’s completely coated.

Place the coated end of the straw or tube onto the bubble mixture on your surface. Blow gently into the other end of the straw to create a bubble.

Dip the straw back into the solution every time you want to blow another bubble.


Step 3 – Challenge step! Blow a double bubble

Dip the straw back into the bubble solution. You need to make sure that the bubble end is completely coated for this to work.

Aim for the centre of the first bubble and carefully push your straw inside. Gently blow a second bubble on the table surface, inside the first bubble.

Can you blow a third bubble inside the second bubble? How about a fourth bubble inside the third bubble?


How does it work?

Mixing washing-up liquid with water forms a solution. When you blow a bubble, air is trapped by a thin film of your bubble mixture. This film is made of a layer of water sandwiched between two layers of soap.

A bubble pops if the soapy outer skin is broken. This can happen as the water in the bubble evaporates, or if the bubble touches something dry or oily. It can also happen when the bubble becomes too big and there isn’t any more soap to create the sandwich layer. If your bubbles last a really long time, you might see the colours shift as the water drains around the sides of the bubble back onto the flat surface. Eventually, the bubble gets so thin you can barely see it – right before it pops by drying out!

Wetting the straw by dipping it in the bubble solution allows it to slide it into the bubble without popping. You can try doing the same with your fingers: can you poke your finger into your bubble without bursting it?


Things to talk about

  • What happens when you blow more than one bubble onto your table?
  • What happens if you blow more and more bubbles?
  • Why do you think bubbles join together?
  • Sometimes, a bubble that pops turns into a smaller bubble. What do you think might be happening?

Other things to try

Who can blow the biggest bubble?

Coat a small plastic ruler with bubble solution and slide it into the middle of your bubble to measure its height.

Do larger bubbles take longer to pop?

Use the timer on your phone, a clock with a second hand or count elephants (one elephant, two elephants, three elephants…) to measure the time it takes for each bubble to burst.

Which ingredients make the bubbles last longer?

Try using more soap, sugar or water in your mixture. Can you make a better bubble solution than us?

More STEM at Home


What you’ll need

  • Two cups
  • A tablespoon and a teaspoon
  • Sugar (half a teaspoon)
  • Washing up liquid (about 1 teaspoon)
  • Warm water
  • A straw (a tube from a pen, Calpol syringe or rolled up paper will work too!)
  • Bin bag (this is to protect the table you are using)
  • A table

Duration

30 minutes or so.

Suitable for…

Age 4 and up.

Safety notes

You know your children better than anyone, and you should judge whether they’re ready for this activity. You might want to think in particular about:

  • Check the temperature of the water. It only needs to be warm enough to touch, no hotter.
  • Make sure all objects to be used as straws are very clean before they are put into mouths.
  • Don’t let children taste or drink the bubble mixture.
  • If any washing-up liquid gets into a child’s eye, rinse with water. Get the child to lie on their back near a sink or bath and gently pour cool water from a jug, or similar, over the open eye continuously for 10 minutes.
  • Children who are allergic or sensitive to soap or detergent products should not do these activities.
  • Ensure children wash their hands after the activity.

Make your own bubble wands

If you want to use up your bubble mixture, you could blow some bubbles outside or even out of your window. There are lots of instructions around the web for making wands for giant bubbles using loops of string. We particularly liked this page from Rhubarb and Wren, who even have their own bubble mix page.

Blowing bubbles with no apparatus at all – make a loop with your fingers and blow through that!

© Northumbria University 2014-22