A New and colorful way to blow bubbles ~ Rainbow Bubble Snakes
Summer is here and our family is SO excited! The kids are planning and scheming about what we are going to do this summer. Love it! One of the fun activities that they wanted to try was making bubble snakes that are all over.
The best part is they are easy to make and use things that I had laying around my house. Perfect! All you need is an empty water bottle from your recycling, duct tape, a sock that is missing its match (which we seem to have an abundance of), dish soap and some food coloring.
Start by cutting the bottom of the water bottle off. Next slide the sock over the bottom of the bottle. We used colorful duct tape to secure our sock, but you could use a rubber band as well. I love how quick and easy it was to make. My kids love making things from our recycling. Last summer they made their own sprinkler using some of the same materials and it is still the sprinkler of choice.
Pour some dish soap into a shallow container with a little bit of water and gently mix. Dip the sock covered bubble blower into the solution and gently blow.
We decided to add some color to the bubble snakes with food coloring. The kids dropped the food coloring onto the sock covered end. It was a bit messy, but the kids LOVED it! Lots of fun giggles.
Annika added a rubber band to hers as well as the tape. She makes me smile! I love the blue and purple bubbles.
Rainbow snakes were definitely a hit in our house!
Please remind your kids to blow air out not suck air in! If your child sucks in, they will be eating bubbles. Please be careful when doing this with your kids. My kids had a blast playing with these bubble snakes. We did not have any trouble with the kids inhaling, but I have had a few readers mention that their younger kids needed continual reminders. The fun will quickly end if the bubbles are inhaled!
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this is such a cool idea (as all the others) thanks for all the lovely tips and activities can’t wait to try this one!
We found this on pinterest and just did it. Thank you so much for sharing…this is genius!! My son is wheelchair bound and ventilator dependent, so we spend a lot of time playing on the floor. This was a perfect activity and he loved it. Thank you!
My 4 yoa granddaughter and I made GAK last night. That was fun. Your son might like that, if you haven’t already did it.
Hi! I just found your blog via pinterest…and I’m so glad I did! Your photos are brilliant, your subjects are super adorable and I love all your fabulous ideas. 🙂 I’m putting this bubble snake idea on my lesson plans next week!
I just tried this and it didn’t seem to work. Is there a specific type of soak you used? Or soap? Not sure what I did wrong?
The thicker socks seemed to work the best, although we also had good results using tube socks. I put a small amount of water into a pie plate (just enough to cover the bottom of the plate), then I did a couple of large squeezes of regular dish soap. Simply did the sock end of the bubble blower into the soap solution and blow. Hope that helps.
not sure, but i think you need to use a sock that is kind of loose woven and fuzzy.Loose so the air can move through and fuzzy to hold the soap that makes to bubbles. also, maybe too much water in soap.
My son and I had a blast doing this! I am going to do this with my first graders on a “Fun” Friday. Thank you for sharing.
I used to have Fun Friday in first grade 😀 If only my class had done this!
My first grade teacher’s first name was also Sheila… Hoping it’s all just a coincidence. 😀 I am going to use this though. I plan on making a video with these in it! Can’t wait!
We had such a fun time doing this today! Love the fact that I had all of the ingredients in the cupboard.
love this! can’t wait to try it.
I love this. I am really interested in how to make the sprinkler you spoke of. I can’t find anything remotely close.
I saw a sprinkler on pinterest about useing a large plastic soda bottle ,turn the bottle upside down, poke holes into it and then screw it on to a garden hose ,, then turn on the hose and throw it up over a tree limb.
Here is the link to the sprinkler my kids made last summer. Hope you enjoy! http://www.housingaforest.com/sprinkler-fun/
Fabulous!
So happy to say it is as easy as it looks and really works.
This is a GREAT outdoor idea for our Kids Church Fun Zone. Thank you.
your blog is a forest of awesome ideas.
Wrote this sock bubble snack thing down {yes I can sometimes be found using a pen and paper to help me remember ideas…instead of pintrest…shocking!}
ditto on the kiwi strawberry fruit roll-ups
{putting them in an old canning jar and tying them with twine is exactly how I would of stored them}
love your beautiful, soft photographs to go with all your ideas.
Cheers,
Leah
I wrote it down with pen and paper as well! 🙂
WOW! As soon as i saw this i knew this was on our summer to do list. All supplies in hand and…man oh man…did we have some snakes! LOL Thanks for sharing, kids loved doing something different with bubbles. Even thinking of putting on our VBS games list!
Made these just now. Took like 3 minutes. I didn’t even have to tape the socks. The kids love them.
This is amazing. Definitely goes on my to do list!
I found you on Pinerest….. love every one of your ideas…. thanks for sharing
I love this simple idea so good for those socks as there are always odd ones! pinned it and trying it Thank you.
We tried this and had great fun….we found that the tighter the sock fit around the bottle, the better. Also, the sock had to be pulled all the way up. We also found out that the liter water bottle worked better than the 16 oz. My last recommendation: have your child wear old clothes and play on the grass if using food coloring!
for how much time does it last?
Found you on Pinterest. This is a fantastic idea. I teach special needs children and this is so simple that it’s perfect. It’s FUN and EASY!! We are having our annual picnic and I will be taking these to the picnic for sure. Thanks!!
Thanks for sharing!!! You creative person, YOU!!! 🙂
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We made these. I blogged some photos here – http://adventureskids.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/simple-holiday-fun-2-bubble-snakes.html
They were the source of lots of laughter and fun. Thanks for the idea.
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Found this on Pinterest. Can’t wait to try it with my boys. Thanks for having a print button!
it was a fun but very messy the kids like it i got to big of a bottle im try again
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Used a tube sock and plain old dish soap and this worked exactly as your pictures indicated! So pretty and fun!
Great fun – but – warning- my 4 year old inhaled some buble/soap mixture (!). Not life threatening but I wouldn’t have even thought that I needed to warn him to only blow OUT and then move the bottle away from his mouth before breathing back in. Ah well, lesson learned. A wonderful and very pretty outside project.
I love this! Looks like great fun. I used to take my old dish washing detergent bottles and fill with color water for the kids to play in the snow. Same idea only for summer!
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I pinned this a bit ago. In my effort to actually DO the things I pin, I have started working through my boards.
This was great! Loved it and so glad you shared.Thanks!
Just love the clever ideas, and beautiful creations, and very simple to create.
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This is so clever and fun, I love it! Going to try the sprinkler, too!
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Thank you so much for this great activity! We live in Colorado and had no fireworks this year due to all the wildfires. I don’t think the kids even missed them because we were having so much fun making the rainbow bubble snakes. I plan on doing this again and again.
me and my friends tried this it was so fun after we were all soapy so we got to jump in the pool
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Cool idea! We’ll be using this with our grandkids. Is it okay with you if we pin a link back to this on Pinterest?
That would be great! Thanks for asking, and have fun with your grandkids!
Thank you! We sure will…
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my three year old and i just did this and it was great! he had such a good time…
thanks for the great idea!
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this is so cool! thank you for sharing!
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We just did this with the kids and it turned out awesome! I think others may not be putting enough soap/too much water. I just covered the bottom of the tupperware dish with water and then put two big globs of soap and stirred. Worked like a charm and the kids loved it! My younger one did inhale once and coughed but we told him not to and he was fine. Great idea!
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We just tried this and the kids are still having fun with it. My younger kids were having a hard time and were getting bubbles in there mouth. So my daughter and I blowed the bubbles and the younger ones are poping them. We also tried the food coloring, lets just say I have a green 3 year old now. They had fun though.
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wounderfool 🙂 very good news from austria!
This looks like so much fun!
Wow! found you on pinterest & love your blog! Pinning this so the moms who follow my Natural Child’s Play board can find you. Everyone needs neighbors like your famiily. <3
Tammy,
Just a courtesy note to let you know I have pinned your “Rainbow Snakes” post to a piinterest board with a collection of learning resources to complement the “Bubble Mania” app. You will find lesson ideas, learning activities and reviews for a range of apps on my boards. If you have other posts suitable for this or other boards I am compiling, you are welcome to email me. You can view my boards at http://pinterest.com/fingerpprojects/
Warm regards
Trudy
Thanks!
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Wow! This is awesome and so creative! I will definitely be doing this with my kids when the warm weather rolls around again.
I love this idea. I work at a daycare and we are always looking for fun games and activities to do with the kids. I would love to do this with them. I think that they would love it. Thanks!
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May i link this to my ABCs series of Thrifty Teaching Tools? with a photo? Thank you. Here is my email: susancasetexas@gmail.com
Hiya – we loved doing these – am blogging about it on Monday and including a link back here :o)
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I just tried this with my 6 & 11 year old, and they loved it! Thanks for the great idea!
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Did the bubbles stain their clothing???
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I quickly scanned comments and didn’t find this suggestion. Poke holes around the top of the bottle and kiddos can’t inhale bubbles.
We have made a mini version of these! We just use a piece of an oak branch! Same thing.. Dip into soapwater and blow on the opposite end = small soap snake!
I will have to make these for bigger snakes though..
Fantastic idea. I will definitely be using this one next time my grandsons come to visit.
Awesome, this will be on the top of my list of things to do with the gkids
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Way too cool. I’ll have to try this with my grandchildren. I may leave out the food coloring as it’s permanent, and they’ll have fun with the bubbles alone. Thanks for sharing.
So Amazing………… Thank you bunches and bless!
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This is genius!! I would never in my life thought of using a sock for this! Thanks for sharing this wonderful idea!
Should have read this first; my 4 year old must have accidentily tried to suck some back in because she had a greenish blue mouth!
Glad they had fun. Stained fingers and food coloring seem to go hand in hand:) Possibly she pointed the bubble blower up so the color could run down. My kids have yet to have a colored mouth, but I can see how it could happen. We need to try this one again soon.
I am trying this with my preschool class on Silly Sock Thursday. I will let you know how it goes. Thank you so much for the great idea!!!
I would love to hear how it goes. What a great perfect way to celebrate silly sock day:)
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I love bubbles!! Found this on Facebook and pinned it for later!! 😀 thanks for sharing.
Love this! My 3yo is a little obsessed with blowing bubbles in her drink with a straw at the moment so I think she’d LOVE this activity! 🙂
This will be the perfect activity! My kids love it
I’m the Editorial Assistant for Fun Family Crafts and I wanted to let you know that we have featured your project! You can see it here:
http://funfamilycrafts.com/bubble-snakes/
If you have other kid friendly crafts, we’d love it if you would submit them. If you would like to display a featured button on your site, you can grab one from the right side bar of your post above. Thanks for a wonderful project idea!
I don’t have any kids to try this with. So I guess I’m going to make my boyfriend do this with me. I love bubbles and rainbows and they are even better together! Thanks for sharing!!!
Does the food coloring stain clothing?
Looks like great fun.
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This is so cool, but I just wanted to let you know that I found your image on pinterest, but it didn’t link back to you. It linked to another lame site that took your water mark off your photo and posted your image as his/her own. I had to do a google search to find you directions. Just thought I should let you know. Thanks again for sharing.
-Deb
SO glad you took the time to find me Debora! It made my day:)
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Just tried this today with my boyfriends 4 year old daughter and we had such a great time! Thank you so much for this fantastic idea!!!
I love it Jenny! SO glad you had fun, it is something that we will be doing again soon for sure! My kids love it!
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I tried this with my nephews (nearly 7 and 3) and they LOVED it!
What a quick, easy, fun and free project.
We didn’t attempt the food coloring, but the suds kept them entertained for quite awhile. The 3-year-old had trouble figuring out how to blow them himself, but was much more entertained by holding the bubbles in his hands and chasing them around. Thanks!
Thanks Kelly. I love that it is a free project too! This is one of our favorite activity!
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Going to try this but no food coloring!!!
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This is absolute GOLD!! I’m such a big fan of bubbles, I can’t wait for my son to wake up so I can try this activity… It’s all set up & waiting for him! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Thanks so much for sharing this idea! Can’t wait to try it this summer with my kids.
We don’t have dish soap in England, is it powder for a washing machine or is it for washing dishes , as we only get liquid to wash dishes ? Thanks, can’t wait to try this
I just tested this at home before trying it with the kids I watch. So much fun!!! I used a 1liter bottle and folded a tube sock in half (no tape or rubber bands required and I’ll throw the sock in the wash when we’re done). I dipped the sock once and played for a while, so a little liquid goes a long way. I can’t wait to do this with kids!
We did this activity today with my 7 yr old and 4 yr old daughters. They had an absolute blast. My 7 year old initially inhaled some of the bubbles until she got the hang of it. My 4 yr old just loved chasing the bubbles.
I found the thicker the sock works better. I think I will also I will do it without food colouring, as it did stain my daughters clothes.
This was a fun, easy activity. Threw them together in a few minutes and the boys had fun. I found that more soap and less water helped and our socks weren’t very fuzzy so we couldn’t get the long snakes but it was still really fun. Thank you!
This is such a neat idea!
Fantastic idea, however we are a house that does not allow bottle water or ever bottled juices as plastic is a restrictive resource. Is there anything else you can use?
We raided the community recycling and just washed the bottles (we don’t use disposable bottles either). You could ask neighbors or friends if they have any.
I love this with the sock! I have done a similar activity using cheesecloth instead of the sock. The cheesecloth is a little more expensive and is not as durable as an old sock. Can also have the kids drop the bubbles onto paper and make some original artwork.
How fun! We did this and it was awesome: We forgot to use food coloring, though, which would have been even more fun. Also, how did you get your snakes so long? Ours were more like bubble balls.
Love from Vietnam. Thank you so much for this wonderful activity. My son laughed a lot.
we have just tried this and ………it is great! Kids and we are having a blast!
This is such a good idea, will try this with my cub scouts! 🙂
Can you use regular bubbles with dish soap? i have a ton of bubbles…
Loved the post. I also found it through Pinterest while surfing for new diy project. I saw a toy on TV that made this snake bubbles and my kid loved it. This will be our Sunday project 🙂
Totally going to try this! This is an awesome project to do with kids.
that is awesome
I know I LOVE this experiment too. Its very easy, homemade and fun!
It kept us busy. It was funny and we all enjoyed making the bottles for were quite creative. Its great that you can use all your old things or things that your not using. LOVE IT !!!!!!!!