What do you need
1. Soap bubbles
You can buy ready-made soap bubble solutions with wands inside, but it’s much cheaper to make your own just by mixing the following ingredients in a container:
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1/4 cup of glycerin: you can find it in pharmacies
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1/2 cup dish soap – Various dish detergents will have different characteristics, so experiment a little to get the best solution.
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2 cups warm water – some recommend distilled water.
2. Bubble wands
For bubble wands, you can use pipe cleaners, plastic lids with a hole in the center, a round plastic can or container with the bottom cut out, fly swatter, a slotted spoon, a wire whisk, cookie cutters, strainers, cheese graters, or a clothes hanger tightly wrapped with cotton string.
Games that use soap bubbles
- Bigger bubble – With a bubble wand, see which team can pop the biggest bubble without popping it.
- The biggest bubble using only your hands – Bring your fingers together to form an opening, dip your hands in a container of bubble solution to get a bubble film, and if you blow gently, you can make bubbles up to two feet in diameter.
- Bubble archery – Place a bullseye target at the end of the room. The youngsters must blow a bubble behind the line and then use their breath to blow on the target and get points.
- Bubble baseball – Divide the young people into teams and ask them to line up one behind the other. Establish a turning point some distance from the starting line. One at a time, members of each team will blow a bubble and catch it with their wand. They must then run to the turning point and return to their team without losing or popping their bubble. When they return to the start, the next person in line goes. If a bubble pops or they lose their wand bubble, they must run back to the start and start over. The team with all of its players to finish first wins.
- Bubble burst – With just one breath, see who can blow the most bubbles. If you take a deep breath, you will be amazed at how many bubbles you can blow!
- Bubble Capture – Blow a limited number of bubbles and then the youngsters run after them and try to catch them with their wand. If they pop the bubble or fail to catch one, they are out.
- Bubble count – A young man blows bubbles while saying a number. The first person to pop that many bubbles wins.
- Bubble Dodgeball – Each of the youngsters is given a bubble wand and bubbles and, staying in a designated area, they try to blow bubbles at each other. If a bubble appears, you are out. Players must be immobile in one place and can only pivot on one foot, but can crouch and turn to avoid bubbles. They can even blow them up.
- Bubble float – Who can make a bubble float in the air for the longest time before it explodes? Youngsters can keep their bubble floating in the air longer by gently blowing under it. Variation, give the team 30 seconds to blow the bubbles. After the 30 seconds are up, time until the last bubble pops.
- Bubble freeze – Young people blow bubbles into a paper plate and then, before they burst, put them in the freezer. The biggest frozen bubble wins.
- Pop-up bubble – Form pairs or teams. One person (or more) blows the bubbles while another person pops them. The team / pair that pops the most bubbles in 1 minute wins. Make it more difficult by not allowing them to use their hands. Change it up by requiring the bubbles to be popped with different parts of the body: nose, ears, elbows, feet, etc.
- Bubble race – Divide the young people into teams. Teams line up in individual rows. Mark a finish line at least ten feet away. The person at the front of the line must blow a bubble and then guide that bubble through the finish line. Then run back to the team and send the next person to do the same. If someone’s bubble bursts or floats away, they should go back and start over. This continues until each member of a team gets a bubble on the line and returns to their team.
- Bubble race – Youngsters must blow their bubble along the race track and cross the finish line!
- Stack of bubbles – One person blows a bubble while another catches it with the bubble wand. Another team member blows another bubble, which must also be caught and placed on top of the first bubble. The team with the highest stack at the end of sixty seconds wins.
- Higher bubble – Who can blow a bubble higher in the air?
- Mega bubble – This Minute to Win game requires the youth to first blow a bubble behind the starting line, then use their own hot air to move it around the playing area and through a waiting ring hanging from the ceiling. The smaller the hoop, the more difficult the challenge. You can also increase the distance to the rim to increase the challenge. Rules: you cannot touch the bubbles. If a bubble bursts while traveling through the rim, it doesn’t count; it must actually go through the hoop and be seen from the other side. You can’t touch the rim itself. If a player must go back to the beginning and start over, they must stand behind the foul line to blow the next set of bubbles.
- Nested bubbles – Blow bubbles within bubbles. Using straws, who can get the most bubbles inside a bubble without it popping.
TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL
Use the games to start a discussion about the things in life that are temporary vs. eternal.
MAKE IT SPIRITUAL
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What do all bubbles have in common? – Eventually they all exploded!
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What are some things that last forever?
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What are some of the things we live for in life that are only temporary?
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Why is it so much easier to focus on temporary things?
Some bubbles last longer than others, but eventually the bubble bursts. The same is often the case with the attractions of life.
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What are some of the things in life that may seem long-lasting at first but are really only temporary?
Explain that each bubble is filled with air. While you can’t see the air, you know it’s there because it shapes the bubble. In life sometimes we must believe in what we cannot see and this is called faith.
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How is faith related to the desire to live for things that are eternal rather than temporary?
Bubbles capture our attention. The same is true of the things of the world. In fact, the bubble is like a small world.
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What are some of the things in life that stand out to us?
MAKE IT PRACTICAL
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What are the characteristics of a person who lives for eternal things?
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What do they live for? Focus on? Fight for?
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How can a reminder that so many things are temporary change the way a person thinks and lives life?
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How can having an eternal perspective on things affect a person’s approach? Dreams? Aspirations? Behaviour? Priorities?
MAKE IT PERSONAL
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What are some of the priorities in your life right now?
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Are these things more beneficial for the here and now or for the eternal?
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Are you focused on things that will last?
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What would change if you had a more eternal perspective on life?
VERSUS SCRIPTURE
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James 4: 13-14 – “Now listen to you who say:” Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, we will spend a year there, do business and earn money. “It will happen tomorrow. What is your life? it pops up for a while and then fades away. “
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Matthew 6: 19-21 – “Do not lay up treasures for yourselves on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves mine and steal. But lay up treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not enter and steal. Because where your treasure is, there your heart will be also “.
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Luke 12: 15-21 – “Then he said to them:” Watch out! Be on the alert against all kinds of greed; life does not consist of abundance of possessions. “And he told them this parable:” The land of a certain rich man gave an abundant harvest. He thought to himself: ‘What should I do? I have no place to store my crops. ‘ Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my leftover grain. And I’ll say to myself: ‘You have a lot of grain in store. for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and have fun. “‘” But God said to him:’ Fool! This very night your life will be demanded of you. So who will receive what you have prepared for you? “So it will be with the one who accumulates things for himself, but is not rich toward God.”
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Colossians 3: 1 – “Since then, you have been raised with Christ, set your heart on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.”
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1 John 2: 15-17 – “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world: the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life, does not come from the Father, but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but he who does the will of God lives forever. “
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Mark 8: 34-36 – “Then he called the crowd together with his disciples and said:” Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. Because whoever wants to save his life will lose it; But whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to win the whole world and lose their soul? “
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Matthew 6: 31-33 – “So don’t worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we get dressed?’ For the heathen run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will also be given to you. “