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?

When she was a little bit older she would set a similar activity up herself, only adding flowers and plants from the garden, plenty of food colouring and even salt from my kitchen cupboard.

It’s very messy, but oh-so-fun.

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.

Lets make some…

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.

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.

We had some awesome fizzing reactions!

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!

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.