By Stephanie Bunker

Moapa Valley Progress

Local kids blow colorful bubbles through straws during a special presentation at the Overton library on Friday. Photo by Stephanie Bunker.

Local children learned all about bubbles at the Overton Public Library on Friday afternoon. Maggie McMurray and Naomi Harris taught bubble art and science for their Library Program.

The kids learned different ways to blow bubbles. They tried blowing bubbles with the air from their lungs or swishing the wand in the air to create bubbles.

McMurray and Harris read books about bubbles out loud to the children. The first book was about bubbles in a little girls tummy and how she burped them out. As McMurray read this story, on the count of 3 all of the kids yelled BURP for the little girl in the book. Another bubble book that Harris read to the kids was about Bubble Gum. McMurray introduced a nonfiction book about bubbles. She explained that nonfiction books aren’t made up. This scientific book about bubbles explained how the soap is sticky and sticks to the edges of the wand so that you can blow into it. The book explained other things about how bubbles are made and what other kinds of bubbles can be made.

Harris and McMurray demonstrated a bubble experiment. They put oil and water in a Gatorade bottle with a couple drops of food coloring. When they dropped in Alka-Seltzer tablets, bubbles appeared and the food coloring bubbled as well.

“It looks like and old fashioned lava lamp!” McMurray told the kids.

Following the experiment Harris and McMurray had a bubble activity planned. Using a water based paint, the children took straws and blew bubbles into the paint. When the paint had a lot of bubbles they took their piece of paper and laid it on top. This made the bubbles pop and make a design on their paper. Hunter Kelly had a lot of fun playing with the different kinds of colors. His favorite bubble color was green, and he had a lot of green bubbles on his paper. Lexie Phillips also had a lot of fun with her bubbles. Out of all of the types of bubbles they learned about, her favorite type of bubble is Bubble Gum.

Following the paint bubble activity the kids were given Bubble Gum as a treat.

“You can’t go wrong with bubbles,” McMurray said at the end of the activity. “Kids love bubbles!”