Atmosphere Balloons

I L-O-V-E balloons! I have been a professional balloon decorator for about ten years now. It's like my side job- I don't consider it a job, because I enjoy it so much. Here's a picture of one place I decorated:

Anyway, today I was getting things ready for school and was reading my lesson plans and saw that we would be studying the atmosphere of earth. Not bad for my 8th and 6th graders, but the though of trying to explain this to my 2nd grader and kindergartner, just was not really striking me as, well, fun. I prayed and the Lord brought this to my remembrance. There is a balloon decorating trade-secret called the "Gum Ball". It's pretty cool. All it is, is a balloon inside of another balloon.  Every time I do one, people ask me how I did it.
I say this out of love and habit:

Before doing this, please watch your little people around balloons, especially if the balloon pops

Here's the scoop:

• I got two balloons- one clear and one blue


• I folded the blue balloon length wise and stuffed it into the clear balloon- OR you can use the eraser side of a pencil, insert it into the blue balloon, then into the clear balloon, whatever you you do, just get it inside! just make sure you leave the tails of the balloon even, it would be even better if you the blue tail partially out.


• I didn't feel like going into the cold garage to use helium, my hand pump was not handy, so I used what I had-my air from my mouth! I Pushed the blue tail over and only blew up the clear balloon- half way only.


• Pinched the tails


• Next, I blew up the clear balloon. The blue balloon will stop the air from the clear balloon from coming out. Be careful, because the clear one will continue to expand with the blue one.


• For the younger children, I tied off the blue one, and pushed it through the clear tail so, it was kinda bouncing around inside.


• For my older children, I tied off the blue tail and left the it out so, they could label their balloons with the different atmosphere levels.


• To make a stand, I cut a piece of paper lengthwise and taped it in the shape of a circle.


• Here is a video, so you can kinda see what I did:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN5tq-wrCWs
Now here are some pics:
My middle son with his Atmosphere Balloon

My youngest son with his Atmosphere Balloon

Oldest son's labeled:



Atmosphere Balloon on paper stand: