I love bubble printing. A bubble print is when you blow air into a straw into a paint, dish soap, and water solution to make bubbles. Just like when we did that with our milk. Then you gently press a piece of paper on the bubbles, but not all the way down because then you will get a thick ring mark from the cup. Then blow more bubbles and print in the other areas of your paper until it is filled and then let dry.

For this assignment, students create a bubble print and lets it dry. Afterwards, they draw sea life on it and then ink it with a sharpie. Students first have a sketchbook assignment on sea life. Then they draw three rough drafts. I recommend sea life that have more details to fill in with black for good contrast against the bubble pattern. If they choose something simple like a dolphin, I ask them to add more dolphins or water splashes.

For the bubble print station, I set up the cups, with the solution in, in bins so that the bubble solution spills into the bin and not all over the counter. The solution is about (I say about because not all tempera and dish soap are made the same) three parts tempera paint, 1 Part dish soap, and fill about two-thirds up with water. I test the solution with the straw to see of the bubbles come up high enough to do the print. There are many videos online for this technique. Students can only do a print if their rough drafts are finished. This makes it so you don't have a huge line of kids waiting for prints. When the student finishes a print, they throw away their straw and clean their area for the next person.