It’s Day 24 of our 31 Days of Outdoor Activities for Toddlers series and it also happened to be the last day of school for my older two kids! We celebrated with our neighbors and friends with popsicles, outdoor marble runs, and these Giant Bubbles!
I am not exaggerating one bit when I tell you that the kids played with these giant bubbles for THREE hours. Yes three! My neighbor can also attest because we were outside with them the entire time. And I am not talking about only little kids…we had 3-year olds all the way to 13-year olds in our yard during this time. And believe it or not, the 13-year old is the one who loved the bubbles the most!
If you don’t care about making enough bubble solution to make life-size bubbles, just make 1/3 of the bubble solution below and use various bubble blowers. One of the kids’ favorites was tying a loop of string together, dipping it into the bubble solution, and then running to make the bubbles in wacky shapes.
Our giant bubbles were inspired by Two Prince Bakery Theater and we modified the original recipe slightly.
Here is the recipe to fill a baby pool of bubble solution:
3 emtpy gallon-size jugs
6 cups of Dawn dishwashing soap (2 cups per gallon)
3 cups of corn syrup (1 cup per gallon)
3 packets of Knox unflavored Gelatin (1 packet per gallon or 2 1/4 teaspoons THM Gelatin per gallon)
Water
Funnel
String
Hula Hoops
Large Tarp (to place underneath baby pool)
Tips for getting Giant Bubbles to work their best:
- Make your bubble solution the day before you want to make giant bubbles. Pour the Dawn, corn syrup, and gelatin into the bottom of the empty gallon milk jug using a funnel. Very slowly add water to the top of the milk jug. Add the cap and shake vigorously. Let sit overnight.
- Meanwhile, loosely wrap the string around the hula hoop until it meets back at the beginning. Tie the ends. This will help the hula hoop “grip” the bubble solution better.
- A few hours before you are ready to use the giant bubbles, pour the solution into the baby pool. The longer it sits in the pool, the better the bubbles will work.
Edited to Add: I suggest doing this on a grassy surface because the area around the baby pool will get really slick (and kids could hurt themselves if they fall on a harder surface like concrete or wood decking). However, PLEASE PUT A TARP DOWN ON THE GRASS BEFORE YOU BEGIN. Otherwise two days later the grass around the pool will die!!! Oopsies. :( Thankfully, I have an understanding husband who doesn’t mind re-seeding!
Now please excuse the excessive amount of pictures to commence…
Once you are done, have another adult help you tilt the pool with the bubble solution and use the funnel to put whatever solution is left back into the gallon milk jugs.
Check out more awesome outdoor activities for toddlers here:
Wish we knew the equialent products to purchase outside USA as this looks so much fun
You should be able to use any dishwashing liquid. I have also seen a recipe that uses just distilled water and dishwashing liquid. I’m not sure if it would work as well as this but it might be worth giving it a shot! The key is to let the mixture sit in the pool for a while…it works so much better once it has “cured”. :)
@Anne Marsh,
Don’t know where you are. But I’m in Spain. I can’t find corn syrup but I use glycerin and Fairy dishwashing liquid (the original one) and that works great. I’ve never tried it with gelatin, but will definitely try that next time we make bubbles.
This looks like so much fun! We’re definitely doing it this summer. Pinning and sharing now so I can find the recipe later!
Can you reuse the solution after dumping it back in the gallon containers?
I think so! Our containers are sitting in the garage…we haven’t reused them since but I will update once we have!
We bought one of those giant bubble wands online years ago and it was fabulous! We used the gazillion bubbles and when we took it to the beach it was making bubbles seriously as big as 8 feet long… would easily hold a full grown man. This year we bought gazillion bubbles again, took out the old rope wand and went back to the beach. Nada! Hardly a bubble except through the loop that was holding the strap. We just gave all the bottles to a couple of the little kids there and let them use them with the mini wands they came with. My daughter was so disappointed as she and a friend were excited to get some great pictures (they are young teens now and wanted some Instagram shots to play with). I’m so glad to have a recipe to try next year! Thank you!
What do you do with the string? Do you glue it to the hula hoop?
No, just wrap it around the hula hoop.
Hi! I am thinking about attempting this at a family camp this winter, inside…If we just did a couple bubbles like up on stage (with a tarp under the pool) how mess do you think it would be? doable? or am I crazy :)? Wondering if the kids got all soapy when the bubbles popped and such. Thanks!
If you just did a couple bubbles, you shouldn’t get too messy. The worst part would be their feet as they are stepping into the bubble solution. But if you have several towels nearby and you should be okay. You’ll have to let us know how it turns out! I’ve never done it inside before. :)
Hi, you say 3 – gallon sized jugs are needed but your instructions appear to use only 1 – gallon sized jug for the bubble recipe (including adding water to the top of the jug). Do you split the recipe into 3’rds, and fill 3 – gallon sized jugs, each with 1/3 of the bubble recipe? Thanks!