Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg and owlet’s wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Cool it with a baboon’s blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.

I love water play

It is the perfect vehicle for imaginative play

That can be easily adapted for any occasion or season

We try to do at least one activity a week

At our faithful old water table

Yesterday with Halloween looming

We decided to make a witches brew

We filled the table with icy cold water

Added a splash of green food colouring

And a dash of mint flavour

For a wonderful peppermint aroma

We then began to add our ‘spooky boos’

Our Halloween ingredients

A gaggle of googly eyes

A peck of pickled fingers

A smattering of spider legs

And one enormous snake!

Esther and William and their five year old cousin

Had a wonderful time

They played together

Talking to one another

Worked together

To concoct their brew

One of their first ideas

Was to transfer their brew

Their magical potion

From the water table to a large bowl

A large cauldron like bowl

Perfect for a bubbling witches brew

Together we stood around the cauldron

Chanting our hubble bubble spell

I would change the ingredients recited each time

Encouraging the children to find a rhyming word

Eye of newt and tongue of frog
Drink this and turn into a … dog

Scaly snake and spider leg
Drink this and turn into an … egg

We had great fun together

Out in the garden

Enjoying the fresh autumn air

The boys loved pouring the water

From container to container

They spent a long time

Moving the potion

From one place to another

Splashing and sploshing

Bubbling and brewing

Esther down sized her play

She focused on one small bowl of broth

She stirred in the purple digits

Ripped the legs from a poisonous arachnid

She crouched down low

Muttering her rhymes

Her magical words

Casting her Halloween spells

After a long time of playing

William asked for some purple water to add to the mix

I did not have any purple colouring

I asked the children how we could make purple instead

We decided to have a go at mixing red and blue

We filled the water table again

Made one side red and one side blue

The red side we scented with strawberry flavour

The children loved that the red colouring

Dense in the water

Looked ghoulish, like blood

They were so excited to mix the colours

And rather than purple

The colour we made was a very satisfying

All Hallows Black

As the skies darkened around us

Our witches brew looked more spooky than ever

We admired what we had created with our ‘Halloween Boos’

We chanted our rhymes and our spells again

Wondering who we might trick or treat with our potion this Halloween