We are potion play lovers. Potions are literal childhood magic!
Potion play creates an opportunity to imagine. It could be healing potions, witches brew, magical potions, fairy potions, potions full of superpowers. This is my favorite part of setting up play for my kids; watching their imaginations and seeing what they make.
Potion play is universal. 2 year olds all the way up to adults love it. Our sweet 10 year old neighbor loves to come and play when we have potions out. Boys, girls, kids, adults: we all want to create a potion!
We have been trying out different potion recipes and add ins. We have decided that dried flowers and biodegradable glitter are a must! These two items up your potion game 100x!
We have also decided that adding in sliver and gold liquid watercolor in your water is important. It just gives it that extra sparkle and shimmer all potions need.
You can defiantly do potions without these 3 things; dried flowers, glitter, and liquid watercolor, it is still very fun and easy. We just love what these extras add to our play.
The ingredients you will absolutely need are citric acid and baking soda. (We have started getting all our baking soda at costco....that is how much my kids love making potions. We need all the baking soda we can get!)
Mix these two ingredients together, add in add some water, and watch the magic happen. The citric acid makes it so that you don't have to use vinegar! No more stinky smell when you want to do fizzy play!
BUT, I learned about a secret ingredient. It is corn flour! Not corn starch, corn flour. I learned about it in this blog post that Sophie Kirkbride wrote. Her blog, instagram, and shop are full of sweet magical things. Go check them out!
Add Cornflour to your mixture of baking soda and citric acid and it will increase the fizz and make giant, over the top, bubbly potions. I promise. Give it a try!
Extra Fizzy Potion Play
- 1 cup Baking Soda
- 1/2 cup Citric Acid
- 1/2 cup Corn Flour (optional)
- Water
- spoon, stick, something to stir with
Mix the baking soda, citric acid, and corn flour together to form the potion base. Set out the water and dye with coloring if you want. Set out the extras you are going to use, as well as a spoon or stirring utensil and let your child get to work.
Optional Ingredients
- Corn flour: The corn flour is completely optional and you can still have a magical fizzy potion without it.
- fresh flowers
- herbs
- essentail oils
- leaves
- jewels/crystals
- liquid watercolor to dye the water
- dried flowers
- biodegradable glitter
- natural color powders
Really, options and add ins are endless.
Thats it! And I bet you, as the adult, will make potions too! I dare you not to try it.
Make your options and tag us on instagram, @woodnpoppy. We want to see all your option play.
If you need a place to do your potion play click here! All of our sensory tables and mud kitchens are perfect for messy potion play!
