Making potions at home

Use your imagination and learn some new vocabulary with Potions Laboratory

Use your imagination and learn new vocabulary with potions laboratory

Making potions is a fun, sensory science activity to try at home with pre-school children.

You will need:

  • Water and anything that can be mixed to create exciting potions, e.g. unused teabags, coffee granules, soap, bath bombs, herbs (dried or fresh), citrus fruits or flowers.
  • Implements for potion-making such as small containers, different types of spoons, measuring jugs, pipettes, a potato masher, a cheese grater (used with an adult) or funnels.

What to do

Put all your equipment on the table and encourage your child to mix the water with the different ingredients to create their very own magic potions!

Use pipettes and measuring jugs to transfer the potions from one container to another and to mix different potions.

Learning and development

This activity can be used to develop children’s vocabulary, as you introduce new and interesting words like aroma, zest, infuse and elixir.

Children can also develop their critical thinking skills through sharing their ideas of what will happen when the ingredients are mixed, trying their theories out and discussing whether they were right.

Encourage your child to measure the ingredients and explore numbers, as well as mathematical concepts such as measurement, volume and capacity.