Witch's Brew: Fall STEM Sensory Play for Kids

We love any excuse for sensory play but this Halloween activity includes a STEM twist! We covered science, technology, and math as we cooked up our own Witch's Brew.

Cook up a Witch's Brew for a sensory STEM activity with kids!

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I'll admit that when I first saw our Early Childhood Team was writing about fall STEM activities this week I was stumped. My colleagues brainstormed with me and my friend who writes at The Preschool Toolbox suggested we try to concoct our own Witch's Brew!

I knew our kids would love that! First, we watched a video of Hap Palmer's song of the same name to include technology into our research.

We began discussing what we could use in our own brew recipes. We took an autumn nature walk around the neighborhood to gather fall ingredients.

Once we had a great mix of autumn items gathered we sorted and counted by type. This was the math portion of our STEM activity.

We added each item one at a time to the brew which was warm water in a bucket. We predicted which items would sink or float to cover science.

As she added the items I asked our kindergartener to write a recipe for her brew. For younger children, an adult can model the writing for this activity.

Finally we used an electric mixer to stir up a bit of water, dish soap, and green food coloring to create soap foam! Our daughter added it to her brew to create a boiling cauldron!

We had so much fun creating this recipe together! She played with it independently for quite some time after it was finished, too. She scooped out the bubbles and individual items giving them creepy names like in the song!

Click here for more brilliant Halloween ideas for kids!

More Fall STEM Activities from the Early Education Team:

Fall Playdough Engineering Challenge by Capri + 3

Five Little Pumpkins STEM Activity by Munchkins and Moms

Playdough Parts of an Acorn by Learning to Walk

Fungus Investigation with FREE Printable by Rainy Day Mum

The Itsy Bitsy Rhyming Spider by Growing Book by Book

How Long Am I? Measuring with Leaves by Tiny Tots Adventures

STEAM Explorations in Early Childhood: Tessellating Shapes! by The Preschool Toolbox Blog

Pumpkin Math and Engineering Challenge by Fun-A-Day

Learning Letters with Fall Leaves R amp Activity by Mom Inspired Life

FALL STEM Challenge for Kids: Leaf Sculptures by The Educators' Spin On It

For all of our play based learning activities please follow Still Playing School on Facebook, Pinterest, Google+, Instagram, & Twitter!

9 comments :

PschooltoolboxSeptember 23, 2015 at 6:24 AM
What a great brew you made! I love that you added the sink or float inquiry! Wonderful FALL activity!
UnknownSeptember 23, 2015 at 6:50 AM
This is so much fun (and full of learning) I am going to have the kids make this soon.
Rainy Day MumSeptember 23, 2015 at 7:52 AM
That looks so much fun I love the little floating and sinking experiment in there we're going to have to give it a try
UnknownSeptember 23, 2015 at 1:50 PM
That looks like a lot of fun. Your kindergartener is really good at writing. Wow!
UnknownSeptember 23, 2015 at 3:45 PM
This is a perfect Halloween Activity! So learning!
Growing Book by BookSeptember 23, 2015 at 10:28 PM
Oh my goodness, my kids will love this!
Mary CatherineSeptember 25, 2015 at 7:23 PM
What an awesome activity for the kiddos! This will be a hit out on the playground with my preschool kiddos (and my elementary aged son will love it at home)! :) And you know I adore the literacy portion you added too.
UnknownSeptember 26, 2015 at 2:04 AM
Awesome activity for the kids. I am looking forward to doing this for our fun girls night in.
UnknownSeptember 27, 2015 at 8:41 PM
What a great idea! I love how you incorporated all the subjects. My kids will love this brew!