- Add Gold Paint to Water Play for Easy, Spooky Potions for Kids
- 2 minutes to set up + 1 secret ingredient = the best potions for kids
- Invite your kids to set up with you!
- What can you add to the potions to make it extra sensory rich?
- Is this called open-ended play?
- How can I make Halloween fun at home?
- Potions for kids are easy to make and EPIC fun!
Add Gold Paint to Water Play for Easy, Spooky Potions for Kids
There will never, ever be enough words to describe HOW AMAZING this is! It’s a 10/10. A+. 5-star Yelp review. Two thumbs up. Potions for kids = always a sensory play winner!
RELATED: Looking for other Halloween activities? Try these digital download coloring pages!
2 minutes to set up + 1 secret ingredient = the best potions for kids
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Materials needed:
- Large buckets (any size, preferably clear)
- Kids’ paint (use whatever kids’ paint you have on hand, just not acrylic as acrylic stains for 26 lifetimes)
- Gold kids’ paint
- Water
We love an activity that comes together in minutes and uses easy, quick materials.
We set this activity up outside, but you could do this inside, too, as long as you protect your floor from the water.
Invite your kids to set up with you!
Kids love helping, and this project is easy and perfect for some help from the littles.
Begin by filling your plastic buckets with water. Once full, add in a squirt of kids’ paint (we filled our containers with black, green, and purple paints) and mix.
✨ OKAY. ARE YOU READY FOR THE BEST PART? ✨
Once you have buckets of colorful, painty water, add in the gold paint! Whisk, stir, and mix it in. As the gold mixes into the water, it makes your already pretty water stunning.
Note: if possible, set this up in a sunny spot to make your water extra shimmery.
What can you add to the potions to make it extra sensory rich?
In addition to the colors from the paints, you can add additional materials to really elevate the sensory play.
- Sense of sound: Add materials like cups and bowls so children can listen to the sound of the water as it pours.
- Sense of touch: Add small materials like pretend spider rings and plastic witchy fingers for kids to hold and find in the water.
- Sense of smell: toss in some cinnamon sticks so kids can enjoy the delicious fall scent.
Is this called open-ended play?
Absolutely!
Open-ended play is characterized by play that doesn’t have specific, firm rules or an intended outcome. There’s no right way or wrong way to play and engage.
Open-ended play is fun, educational, and essential to include a child’s day.
When kids are playing with this spooky water, they might:
- Pretend they are witches making different witchy brews. You might overhear things like, “This potion is perfect!” or “I need to add a little more cinnamon and it will just be just right.”
- Mix colors and end up creating more potions. You might overhear things like, “I mixed the apple potion with the black licorice potion and now I have sour grape potion!”
- Add in extra materials to elevate play. You might observe them tossing pebbles, sticks, leaves, and pinecones to add texture and color to their potions.
There’s no intended outcome. There’s no final, physical product.
Open-ended play and water potions will forever go hand-in-hand!
How can I make Halloween fun at home?
By trying something like this! Kids don’t need fancy, complicated, or expensive projects.
To make this activity extra fun, turn on your favorite Halloween playlist so your littles can sing and dance while playing. I love having beautiful music on while kids play as it adds something special to the play.
This project is perfect for classrooms, too! Use this as a center during center time or as a station during free play. This is super easy to set up for large groups as well.
Potions for kids are easy to make and EPIC fun!
If you’ve ever photographed something that sparkles, you might understand how hard it is to capture how gorgeous it is in a photo. (I know I sure have!)
Only once you do this in person can you truly experience how absolutely beautiful this is. Kids go crazy for this.
I shared this project on Instagram and have been getting tagged in people’s videos about every 10-15 minutes for the past week because people love it.
Enjoy your spooky potions!
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