We love all types of sensory play in our home. With potion play at the top of our list, play dough comes a very close second, so we have lots of themed cutters. I love being able to use a sensory tool more than one way and heres how we use cutter in our potion play!

1. Set the Scene. Because its close to Halloween we choose our Halloween shaped cutters - bat, ghost, web, haunted house and witches hat. These eco-cutters are from Kinfolk Pantry and are simply gorgeous. I put them in a tray to catch the spill and then added some Halloween themed resin pieces for interest.

2. Prep the Base. Fill each cutter with a small amount of potion powder and/or Fizzy Drops. For this play I only add a small amount, making this activity great for when you only have a little potion powder to hand, or are wanting a  quick, simple and easy to set up & clean-up play time. If you use too much potion powder in the cutters the shape is lost and the tray just becomes one magical mass (but thats fun too!). A little cauldron to the side was full of foaming and fizzy potion ingredients for extra fizz and bubbles! I used Halloween potion colours, orange, green and purple, plus our black and white Fizzy Drops which looked awesome in the bat cutter! Do check my website because I always have special themed seasonal potion kits available depending on the season.

3. The Magic Happens. Use a pipette to add water slowly (all our potion kits for kids include a pipette and small scooping spoon). This controls the amount that goes onto the powders and allows for optimal fizzy magic! The powders will fizz up! It fun to add more than one colour to a cutter. In the photo see our spider web with turquise and purple in full fizz mode - its mesmerising! 

4. Experiment & Explore. Encourage creativity! What happens if you mix colours? add more water? add more ingredients? Poke the bubbles with a finger to feel the texture.

5. Clean Up and Extend the Fun. Once the reaction stops you can add more ingredients and keep playing or empty the mixture into a jar and watch the magical potion dance and swirl as you stir with a spoon or how about freeze the potion overnight for "ice potions" adding little themed toys like plastic spiders that your little ones have to rescue by using the pipette to add warm (never hot) water to the ice.

Give it a try and let me know how it turned out. I love to see mini magic makers bubbling brews and concoctions - Tag me in your plays @cherry.bumbles

Try for different themes too! We used our leaf cutters for an Autumn play.

Have a magical play!