Brooklyn, Ohio

Cuyahoga Universal PreK-Starting Point

Brittany Hubbell, Intervention Specialist/Coordinator

brittany.hubbell@bcshurricanes.org

Bubble Bash

Brooklyn Preschool’s Action Team for Partnerships (ATP) and colleagues conduct some activities for families and students to enjoy learning together during the school day. This year, one activity was Bubble Bash to support a science unit on The Ocean/The Sea. Teachers used flyers, reminders, and conversations at school to invite parents and other family partners to select a morning or afternoon schedule to participate in Bubble Bash with their children.

Activities started in the children’s classrooms. Parents and students created an Under-Sea Treat using graham crackers, goldfish crackers, blue-water icing, and white and green sprinkles to represent bubbles and seaweed. They ate their creative water scenes. Students danced to under-the-sea music played along with a bubble machine. At activity tables, students and parents used ocean animal stickers to create an under-the-sea picture. They also took turns taking a family photo in front of an under-the-sea backdrop to keep a record of their time together.

In the auditorium, parents and children enjoyed Bubble-Mania—a presentation all about bubbles—by the staff of Great Lakes Science Center. This included information on the shapes and colors of bubbles, different tools to blow bubbles, and opportunities for children to catch bubbles, make bubble beards, and “go inside” bubbles.

Students studying The Ocean/The Sea in class gained knowledge and skills about life under the sea. They experienced ways that bubbles are joyful in their own world and important in the ocean. Students strengthened preschool skills of following directions, creating art, building small and large motor skills in dance, and showing good audience behavior.

The school used a small grant from its guiding organization on partnership programs (Universal PreK-Starting Point) to pay for supplies and for the presenters. Over 90 parents and family members participated. They met and talked with teachers and with each other. One parent reported, “Loved how the woman from the science center had the children involved in her demonstration! The kids get very antsy with stuff like that. So, getting them involved was great!”

Read more about Bubble Bash in Promising Partnership Practices 2023.