Halloween would not be complete without making your own witches brew or potion!
What I really love about making your own potions is that you can make it as simple or as complicated as you want. Use your imagination and see what you and your kids can come up with. There are so many options that can be easily adapted to make this activity engaging with whatever age your kids are.
Ingredients for the Perfect Witches Potion
To get your wheels turning here is what we used to fill our cauldron.
- Eye Balls
- Creatures (newts, frogs, bugs, etc)
- Florescent rocks (radioactive rocks)
- Plastic Gems
- Bones
- Fairy Dust (Baking Soda)
- Blood (water dyed red with corn starch)
- Witches Brew (water dyed blue)
- Spider Venom (Root Beer)
- Ghosts
- Vinegar
- Spiders
Get into it: Set the tone for your activity
My kids are still little so I gathered the supplies and then I introduced the different ingredients. A couple of the ingredients I left up to them to decide what they were. The florescent rocks, no idea what they should be but I thought they looked cool. We held a Halloween Party and the kids in attendance decided that they were obviously Radioactive rocks. Awesome!! I went along with it and we were extra extra careful not to touch it. We didn’t want anyone to turn into the Hulk!!
To protect ourselves we had the kids use tongs, spoons and especially googles. You never can be too careful when it comes to eyesight.
Once you have your supplies and tools ready to go then you are finally ready to face major decisions. Ready.
What will your Potion be?
Are you creating a potion to help you fly? Grow into the size of a giant? Super strength? Maybe you would like to be invisible. Possibly turn someone into a toad? Anything is possible..
Use correct measurements
When you are assembling your potion make sure to use measurements.
- 1/2 cup of bones
- 3 teaspoons of witches brew
- 6 Ghosts
- etc.
I made our recipe up on the spot and adapted along the way. Occasionally we would mix our concoction and I would ask the kids if our potion needed something else. Another eyeball? More radioactive rocks? Let the Little’s take an active role in the creation of their magical potion
Learning while your Potion Brews
Making potions is good clean fun. It can simply be fun or you could slip in some learning.
As a homeschooling family we took our brewing to the next level. I purposely included supplies that would produce a chemical reaction (baking soda and vinegar) to open discussions and allow us an opportunity to talk about why fizzing occurred. When we measured our supplies into the cauldron I had the kids practice their simple math facts. I would have the Little’s add four ghosts to our brew then two more. How many ghosts are in our brew now? This simple math is perfect for early learners and much more fun than doing worksheets. You can explore with fractions. We need 3 cups of bones. How many scoops in 1/2 cup increments do we need? Count the six scoops with your kids.
Learning can be found anywhere if you just remember to look!
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