If your kids love making potions they'll love this frothy, bubbly foaming witches brew complete with loads of creepy crawlies. I'll show you how to make some fun sensory witches brew using just a few common household supplies. This witches brew will come to life in seconds and keep the kids entertained for ages. An added bonus is the kids will also have super clean hands after playing!
Once you've put together your creepy concoction watch the magic unfold as the kids have loads of fun casting spells and creating potions. Will they make a love potion, heal the sick or turn people into frogs with their marvellous mixture...
HOW TO MAKE FOAMING BUBBLY WITCHES BREW
Supplies Needed
- Water
- Green food colouring
- Dishwashing liquid
- Scoops, pots and bowls
- Rotary egg beater {or whisk}
- Large plastic cauldron
- Plastic bugs
We made our witches brew in a big purple cauldron that we saved from Halloween last year. It came with a bunch of candy in it from a department store and we knew the cauldron would be great to keep for sensory play. You can also find plastic cauldrons for sale by themselves in most supermarkets, department stores or dollar stores in the weeks leading up the Halloween.
The girls chose to use green food colouring for our potion, however it would also look great with orange, purple or even red. Just make sure you use water based food colouring and only a few drops so it doesn't stain little hands. The foam on top will likely stay white despite the food colouring, but the water underneath will be nice and vibrant.
All of our stainless steel mini pots and pourers were thrift shop finds as well as our rotary egg beater. You can however use mini pretend play utensils and pans and you can find rotary egg beaters on Amazon. Any plastic bugs will do, ours came from a big mixed bag set and included snakes, beetles, crickets, frogs, ants, spiders and flies. The more creepy crawlies the better!
>> Please make sure children DO NOT taste the mixture as it contains dishwashing liquid. <<
STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS TO MAKE WITCHES BREW FOR SENSORY PLAY
Be warned this can get very messy! Which is all part of the fun of course, but you will definitely want to do this activity outside and you may need a towel to dry off the kids after. If they're anything like mine, no matter how many times you say don't splash each other, it will most likely happen - so be prepared.
1. Add a few drops of green food colouring to the bottom of the cauldron.
2. Squirt a generous amount of dishwashing liquid on top of the food colouring.
3. Add water until the cauldron is 3/4 full. Because we did this outside using our mud kitchen tap, the water pressure from the tap started to create lots of bubbly foam. However if you're not using a tap and are just pouring in water then it might not be as foamy yet, but don't worry we'll foam it up in the next step.
4. Use rotary beaters to whisk the mixture to create fluffy foam on top of the water. If you don't have rotary beaters you can use a hand whisk to get the same effect.
5. Add plastic bugs to your potion.
As you can see from the video, the girls loved making their witches brew and spent a good 40 minutes playing alongside each other and together to create their own creepy concoctions. They probably would have continued playing with it longer but we made ours in the late afternoon and it was starting to get cold.
They took turns scooping up the bugs and pouring the coloured water back over them then mixing it all back together. The combination of the foam, water and different textures of the plastic bugs made this activity a great sensory experience.
They loved trying to find as many bugs as possible each time they scooped up the water. They also used the mini pots to create smaller potions and eventually completely filled both our mud kitchen sinks with potions.
ALTERNATIVE ITEMS TO ADD TO YOUR WITCHES BREW
If you don't have a plastic bug collection then try adding these items to make a different witches potion instead:
- Different flowers
- Sticks and leaves
- Pinecones and seed pods
- Plastic Halloween eyeballs
- Halloween creepy crawlies
- Plastic skeletons or bones
- Plastic mini pumpkins
MORE HALLOWEEN PLAY IDEAS
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