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The Craft Train

Crafty ideas for kids and parents

You are here: Home / Crafts and Activities / Holiday Crafts / Bubbling Brew for Pretend Play

Bubbling Brew for Pretend Play

September 27, 2022 By Kate 2 Comments

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Bubbling brew is a playful, fizzing science activity preschoolers will love. They can pretend to be witches or wizards whilst they stir up a magic, fizzing brew filled with plastic bugs!

We originally did this one afternoon with my youngest when she was a preschooler (how time flies!). It kept her busy for AGES and it was something she kept requesting to do again and again for years afterwards – who doesn’t love fizzy science?

It’s very messy, but oh-so-fun.

You might also like our Halloween pom pom poppers

bubbling brew fizzing science activity for kids

Bubbling brew is super easy to set up at home, likely with ingredients and props you already have on hand.

You will need plenty of vinegar and baking soda, because the kids will love it so much they will use it all up quick.

This activity is a bit of science and a bit of pretend play rolled in to one. You can talk to the kids about how the acid in the vinegar reacts with the alkaline in the baking soda to cause a bubbling, fizzing reaction. Just like magic!

Miss K was always a fan of pretend kitchen play, so this was something I knew she would really love.

ingredients needed to make bubbling brew

Lets make some…

Witch books for kids


 

How to make bubbling brew for pretend play

You will need:

• 2L bottle of white cleaning vinegar (or the cheapest vinegar you can buy)
• Baking Soda (we used about half of a 500g box)
• Food colouring or liquid water colours (food colouring stains hands and clothes so liquid watercolours are a better choice)
• Plastic creepy crawlies and snakes
• Props from the kitchen: A large pot, a wooden spoon, a table spoon, bowls and a measuring jug
• Water

How to:

To make the bubbling brew first pour 4 cups of water into the large pot, and stir in 3 heaped tablespoons of baking soda. Then add a few drops of food colouring and the plastic creepy crawlies.

adding baking soda to bubbling brew pot

plastic bug goes into the witches brew pot

spoon full of bugs from the witches brew pot

Give it all a stir and then add vinegar. Miss K poured the vinegar into the measuring cup herself and then poured it all into the brew.

now add vinegar to the pot

We had some awesome fizzing reactions!

fizzing reaction from baking soda and vinegar

witches brew made from fizzing baking soda and vinegar reaction

fizzy science activity for kids

You can keep adding tablespoons of baking soda and cups of vinegar as much as you like. Miss K used up all of the 2L bottle of vinegar and also finished off the box of baking soda which was about half full to begin with. I’m sure she would have kept going much longer if she could have!

adding more baking soda

bug stew

Once the supplies were all gone she made a great game of serving the “poison stew”, as she called it, into plastic bowls for pretend dinners. This kept her busy for a good half hour after our activity was over – she really didn’t want me to pack it away.

You might also like:

  • Check out our collection of Halloween paper crafts for kids
  • This spooky pom pom popper is a fun and easy DIY toy 
  • Salt dough is a classic for a reason! We used it to make Halloween salt dough ornaments
  • Kids will love making a witch’s potion with all sorts of ingredients!
  • Make a cute and fluffy pom pom spider 

bubbling brew for kids

 

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Comments

  1. 1

    Daphne says

    September 30, 2019 at 9:32 am

    I have two young friends who will enjoy making this for Halloween!

    Reply
    • 2

      Kate says

      September 30, 2019 at 11:08 am

      I hope they have fun 🙂

      Reply

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  • Kate GronoKate GronoCrazy Craft Fanatic

    I’m basically a big kid who never grew up and still loves to muck around with paint, glitter, glue and toilet rolls. With the crafts shared here on this website I’m hoping to give other parents and carers inspiration to get crafty with their kids at home – make our projects, or use them as a source of inspiration to spark ideas of your own. When it comes to crafting no rules apply!

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