All week we spent time with bubbles while practicing this week’s Coping Skill: Blow the bubbles (see the segment below). We have bubbles from soap, bubbles we can blow, bubbles we chase, bubbles in our water cups and bubble wrap! Our Circle Time books are Bubble Trouble and The Worry Balloon from our local library about other B things: a baby boy who gets stuck in a bubble and a little girl who puts her worries in a balloons to blow away.
We had a warm Thursday with the temperature getting to over 100 on our playground! Thank you to our volunteers today Grandpa Kelven and Ms/Grandma Mona! I am so grateful! We balanced with babies, built with blocks, bounded after bubbles and breezed through the day.
Here are some questions to find out about our day:
What kind of bubbles were on the playground today?
BIG ones! Ms Kristin got the fancy bubble-hand-bubble-in-a-bag thing to work that she’s had in her office for years. We imagined what if the baby was in the bubble just like our book. Thank you for others taking pictures and sending them to me!
While outside, we also played in the September heat and finished our days on the blanket for our Goodbye Circle (where we talk about the next time we’ll be together and sing “We Wish You Well”).
How did we get the beautiful brown paint?
By mixing the all colors from the bubble wrap print newspaper table! We started with blue for our Blue Bubble Print project and then added 24 more colors!
What food did the animals eat?
After classifying the animal groups, we brought play dough over to make food for the baby animals. Some of the food was realistic and some was silly. The big dinosaur baby really liked cinnamon rolls. Ms Kristin made him turn his head and say, “Did someone say cinnamon rolls?”
What did you blow through to make bubbles in your cup?
Straws! We had three sizes: teeny tiny like in my video below, “regular” and big 10 mm ones. This is such great work for those mouth and face muscles. We did this right before we got our food at Snack Time so they could switch to sucking through the straws to drink and blow to make bubbles.
In the morning Ms Kristin brought bunny food (carrots!) which was a nice carry on from our morning of making food for the pretend baby animals. We always offer a “safe food”- so everyone has something they want to eat. Today it was Cheez-Its for the table.
In the afternoon we had blueberry muffins, bananas and bear fruit snacks! What a beautiful treat. Thank you, Heath!
B Week Coping Skill: Blow the bubbles.
This week we are exploring the longer exhale breath that accompanies blowing bubbles (both bubbles already in the air and the act of using a bubble wand or straw). Longer exhales cause the vagus nerve to send a signal to the brain, activating the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest) and easing the sympathetic nervous system (fight, flight, or freeze). Children may be able to witness the effectiveness of this breathing technique while blowing bubbles. Children are also reminded to return to a comfortable and spontaneous breathing pattern (building on last week’s skill of honoring their bodies’ impulses. This coping skill has the added benefit of being one that can be done “anytime anywhere” with imaginary bubbles.
This week’s Coping Skill questions you can ask your child:
How small of a mouth hole can you blow bubble breath through? One trick to extend the exhale is to purse the lips and make as small of an opening as possible for the breath to sneak out of. Remember to invite children to return to a comfortable breathing pattern after a bubble breath.
What color bubble wand did you use?
We have a wide range of rainbow colors to choose from: red, orange, yellow, green, light blue, dark blue, purple and pink!
Other benefits of bubble play :
Fine motor skills – this one is probably the most obvious to think about. Using the skinny wand that usually comes with a bubble container, children can practice pinching and holding the bubble blower as if they were holding a pencil! They can also work with bilateral hand coordination, as one hand is holding the bottle while the other dips the wand in. There is also strength and dexterity required to open and close the bottle, and lots of different ways to pinch, poke, or clap the bubbles!
Gross motor skills – The act of chasing bubbles and trying to pop them can be a great way to get kids to crawl, jump, run, stomp, bend down and reach up super high! This fun play can help strengthen children’s muscles and develop important gross motor skills, and usually the chase of the bubble is it’s own reward!
Sensory processing skills – Bubbles are wet and slimy, they feel interesting on your skin. This might be something some kids LOVE…and other kids might hate. It might be a nice way to practice getting used to a soapy texture if you’re trying to help your child with their willingness to bathe/wash their hands. The physical act of blowing a bubble can also be very effective as a sensory based way to help children organize and focus their bodies.
Hand eye coordination and visual tracking skills – The process of playing with bubbles take lots of practice to connect what the eyes and hands are doing in order to use the wand! With this practice, we can also work on tracking skills, by pointing out the bubbles high and low, to have your child look at them to their left, right, up and down.
Oral motor skills – Blowing bubbles is hard work! To blow a bubble you need to pucker your lips to make a little circle (also called lip rounding), which can help improve oral motor skills! These oral motor skills can help exercise the jaw muscles to prepare the mouth for pronunciation of words. I read a tip that if you see that their lips are making a flat shape instead of a round shape, you can gently squeeze their cheeks to get their lips to make the right shape.
newcreationpreschool.com 