Target Age class: Ages 6-8
Area of improvement: Creativity and Communication
If you have a bottle of bubbles, some packages of food dye, several bowls, and some pieces of plain white paper; the creative possibilities are endless! Here is an art project that you can do with your child that will spark their imagination and inspire them to create narrative stories or poems about their abstract creation.
First, outside in an empty, grassy area on a warm and sunny day; pour some bubble solution into five shallow bowls. Next, add a few drops of food colouring (red, yellow, and blue) to each bowl and together; gently mix them until the solution has completely changed colour. Feel free to encourage your child to mix dyes to make green, orange, and purple. While you both are adding drops of colour to each bowl, take advantage of this teaching opportunity to discuss primary colours (red, yellow, and blue) and secondary colours (green, orange, and purple).
Next, dip your bubble wand into a coloured solution of your choice. Hold a piece of white paper at an arm’s length in front of you. Blow through the wand and allow the bubbles to land and pop on the white paper. Dip the wand into a few more different coloured solutions if desired, and repeat the process. Set the decorated paper off to the side on a flat surface so the colour won’t run off of the page, allowing it to dry. Repeat this process with your child, allowing them to blow bubbles onto a fresh, white page which you can hold for them. Your child will love watching the colourful bubbles pop on the page. Feel free to make as many bubble pictures as desired.
After the papers are dry, tape them up on a flat surface and place your child about 5-6 feet away from the pictures. Encourage your child to analyze the abstract artwork. Explain to your child that abstract means something that exists as an idea but does not actually exist. Tell them to look and think deeply at each creation to see if they can see something familiar within each image.
Model your thinking process by selecting a bubble picture and stating what you see by using words, adjectives, relating it to objects that your child would also recognize, and actually point out where you are seeing these relatable images within the bubble art. For example you could say, “That yellow and green picture reminds me of a large lion hiding in tall grass, waiting to hunt its next meal.” Encourage your child to share what they think they see in each picture.
Next, give your child a writing journal and encourage them to choose one picture that they can “see “an image within the best and use it to inspire them to write a story about. Model your own story first, telling them that journal writing time is not a time to worry about spelling, but to concentrate and focus on thoughts and feelings and organizing them in a way that makes sense. Each image can serve as inspiration for a daily writing prompt.
This form of open ended play not only improves linguistic ability but enhances creativity and sparks the imagination as well!
