I’m not sure about you, but my will power crumbles at the sight of bubble wrap.
I can try to resist but the overwealming urge to squeeze those teeny tiny air pockets and be rewarded with a little pop, pop, pop consumes me.
I’m weak I tell you!
But, talking about bubble wrap, kids love it as much as we do and it makes for great learning activities.
Just pop pop popping along
I remember, one morning, when Hamish was a baby, I took some bubble wrap I had saved from a delivery and placed it on the floor for him to run across, jump on and dance over.He was giggling so much with each pop pop pop of the little air pockets.
I then decided to see how else I could incorporate bubble wrap as a sensory learn through play activity.
Here are some of the bubble wrap activities that he enjoyed.
Crawling, rolling or walking over bubble wrap
When Hamish was a few moths old I would allow him to practice crawling and rolling on bubble wrap.And would help him walk on it , encourage him to squeeze it in his hand and sit on it.
Older kids can try to walk across bubble wrap; light as a feather, heavy as an elephant, fast as a cheetah… without popping any bubbles.
Bubble painting
Another great activity is to use 2 pieces of bubble wrap, place paint between them and allow your child to moosh the paint up with their hands and toes.Perfect for those rainy days when you don’t want too much messy play.
You can also use shaving foam for a toe squishing sensory activity. Place one sheet of bubble wrap bubble side up, and the other bubble side down. Add shaving cream and several drops of food coloring. The combination of the shaving cream and the bubble wrap is amazing between the toes.
Older children can paint onto bubble wrap first with a paint brush and then with a roller. Ask them to listen to the sounds it makes. It should be silent with the brush but the force on the roller will cause the bubbles to pop.
Or they can cover rolling pins/toilet roll tubes or kitchen towel tubes with bubble wrap, elastics .Dip in paint and roll onto a piece of paper.
Also they can add paint to cut out shapes from bubble wrap to print onto paper to make your own wrapping or book covers.
Why your child should be encouraged to play with bubble wrap
Allowing your child to play with bubble wrap, under close supervision, assists them to work on hand and finger strengthening by pinching, squeezing and rolling it.
Bubble wrap also adds a unique sensory twist to so many activities and with a little creativity and out of the box thinking you can incorporate bubble wrap into several areas from art and fine motor development to gross motor play.
Bubble wrap provides unexpected tactile, proprioceptive, and auditory input to a wide variety of activities.
By using it in learning through play activities you also promotes fine motor and visual motor skills.
Bubble wrap makes an excellent activity for finger isolation, pinch strength and prehension pattern development when popping the bubbles with the fingers. So if you want to start working on early writing skills allow your child to pop some bubble wrap.
When using his feet for play with the bubble wrap your child receives proprioceptive feedback, which in turn promotes body in space, body awareness, balance, motor planning, and overall gross motor skills.
So the next time you unpack that delivery, save the bubble wrap for hours of fun play.
