Submitted by Dan Fee, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin

Idea posted October 11, 2005

I've done the bubble blowing activity to "Aquarium" from Carnival Of The Animals before, knowing it ought to work, but never quite having it click...until today. I think this idea originally came from the Music K-8 Mailing List several years ago. (I thank that person very much!) I figured if I spent enough time fine-tuning it, it would finally work. So, let me try to explain it:

  1. You buy a bunch of those small wedding bubbles in the small bottles. I found mine at the dollar store in packs of eight or so. Cheap!
  2. You loosen the tops. They're on so tight, the kids can never get them off.
  3. Listen to "Aquarium" as you normally would and do whatever you normally do (i.e., listening maps, movements, etc.).
  4. Notice that during much of it, there is a sort of "whole note/whole rest" pattern that you can count or feel in your head. This is the perfect time to teach whole note and whole rest.
  5. Let the children listen to it again, but have them practice blowing out for four-beats/sucking air in for four-beats. (This is prep for bubble blowing.) I found that telling them to pretend to blow out their birthday candles helped a lot, or you might get four separate puffs of air.
  6. You need to decide which parts of the piece they will do the whole note/whole rest blowing. It doesn't work for the whole piece. You'll easily hear when it works and when it doesn't.
  7. Demonstrate the proper way and length of time to blow bubbles. It's just like the activity before with the birthday candles, except this time, YOU have the bubble wand in your hand. Obviously, during the whole rest you dip and get ready for the next whole note.
  8. I had the bubble bottles loosened and ready at the tables for the kids. At this point, we all rehearsed the bubble blowing. I had the real bubbles, and they pretended. Finally, we went to the tables and did it for real. I told them to leave the bubble bottles on the tables, as I was afraid they'd spill if they held them in their hands. In three classes, not one kid spilled. Also, remember to tell them not to chase or try to catch the bubbles. (I made two girls sit down who did that.)

An important part of this lesson was that I was holding/alternating big cards with "whole note" and "whole rest" on them, so they were reading these while they blew bubbles. Encourage them to look up while blowing, or they'll just look at their bubble bottle.

On a nice day, this would make a fun outdoor activity with a boom box.