Witch Themed Potion Making

Baking soda and vinegar is such a simple science experiment that we love and enjoy quite often! We also love sprucing it up and adding a theme, and in this case it's potion making! Bean loves witches and thinks they are awesome. Witches love flying around on their brooms at night during the full moon, hanging out with their black cats, and stirring their potions in big cauldrons all day... Yep, that's what she believes witches do all day. :) She's also obsessed with reading Room on the Broom a million times a day. 

Alright, so we made a witches brew! Because "witches are awesome and love things that bubble!" Bean is too cute! We gathered up a bunch on kitchen tools, a bin, a cauldron, some mini cauldrons and pumpkins, witches ingredients (like rats, bugs, fruits and veggies, frogs, that sort of thing), and other goodies.

At the time, Bean ended up being completely distracted and was sitting on the couch reading a comic book. Munchkin loved that he was able to be "in charge" of this sensory bin and helped unpack the bin and put everything to the sides. He carefully arranged everything so it would be in reaching range.

I helped him pour some baking soda into the base of the cauldron (this was baking soda that we had saved from a recent sensory bin, so we just let it dry out and put it in a Ziploc until it was ready to be reused again).

I held the mini cauldrons while he poured a little bit of vinegar into each. Then I let him add a drop of a few different colours of food colouring and he stirred them.

He really enjoyed dumping the mini cauldrons contents into the big cauldron. At first he had been using the little teaspoon to scoop it in, but it barely bubbled up. So after he discovered how much it bubbled up after dumping in the whole thing, he proceeded to dump in several more.

It was pretty awesome watching the effects! We used a few different colours, so it was interesting to watch the colours slowly mix together. While this was happening, I pointed out the colours and Munchkin repeated them and then I asked him what colour they make if you combine them, so he would mix them up to see what the colours produced. He still doesn't talk a ton, so this was more of a visual process while I explained.

Then he wanted to add more baking soda, so he piled it on and gave some fresh ground for the new batch of mini cauldrons.

The whole experiment was so fun! It doesn't matter how often or how much we do this experiment, it is always so much fun! It's so exciting to watch the bubbles rise up and the colours are really pretty and they eventually all mix together.

Another fun part was stirring! And yes, that is a happy spoon. :)

Stir. Stir. Stir. Bubble. Bubble. Bubble.

Oh, yeah! That is one mean, green, witchy brew! And here comes trouble...

I mean, Bean. Here to take over.

While she obsessed over mixing the brew ("too many lumps!"), Munchkin began picking through the special witch ingredients (notice all the missing rats? Yeah, that would be our dog, Kaede: the rat thief.). He loved adding them in and repeating "tasty, tasty!" enough times that I was creeped out. The whole image of two starting-to-act-crazy (really getting into the whole witch thing) kiddos stirring a bubbling green brew and dropping in rats and snakes and insects and a couple pumpkins and then offering me a spoonful as if my life depended on tasting it... Too much. I pretended to be a helpless victim and said unfortunately I could only consume tea. :) Bean was satisfied and continued stirring. 

Oh, yeah. That looks tasty.

Stir. Stir. Stir. This went on for about an hour until we were out of baking soda and vinegar (I gave them a set amount).

While I began tidying up before dinner, Munchkin was so sweet and made me a few apple muffins! How cute are they? Super cute! And because I recently read Snow White to Bean, she kept gasping and whispering, "Sleepy apples. Eat one and sleep."

This was such a fun activity and one that we will continue to enjoy! We can't wait for more Halloween activities this week! We are gearing up for Thursday. Bean is being a Hello Kitty witch and Munchkin is being a cowboy for Halloween. We can't wait!!

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