This Love Potion Mix & Pour Sensory Bin is the perfect way to celebrate this Valentine’s Day. A hands-on sensory activity that has all the fun of water beads without any of the safety issues! Kids can explore the textures and colors and of Valentine’s Day with this fun sensory play idea!
Made with tapioca pearls, that have been dyed a vibrant red and pink, kids will love scooping and pouring them into beakers and test tubes to create magical love potions! A great way to encourage fine motor skills, imaginative play and sensory exploration.
Materials
- Sensory bin
- Tapioca pearls
- Sauce pan
- Water
- Red and pink Food coloring
- Beakers and test tubes
- Heart shaped containers
- Scoopers
How to Set Up Love Potion Mix & Pour
Prepare the Tapioca Pearls
- Cook tapioca pearls according to package instructions. To make the red and pink beads, cook them in separate batches.
- While they’re cooking in the water, add several drops of red and then pink food coloring, respectively.
- Rinse with cold water until the water runs clear and let them cool completely before adding them to the sensory bin.
- Make a separate batch of tapioca pearls that are just white. You will not need to add food coloring to these. Check out the Tips for Success for more.
Sensory Bin Set Up
- Fill a plastic bin or shallow tray with the dyed tapioca pearls.
- Add water to create a mixable, pourable potion base.
- Place beakers, test tubes, and scooping tools around the bin for kids to use. If you have hear shaped water-proof containers like heart shaped fidget toys or containers add them as well.
Time to Play
- Encourage kids to scoop, pour, and mix their own potions.
- They can combine red and pink pearls, pour water between test tubes, or even make up fun potion “recipes.”
Tips for Success
- We used a bag of tapioca pearls that contained multiple colors but were mostly white. When I dyed them pink and red, the dye took to different colors differently. I removed the pearls that ended up being too dark. For the white beads, I removed all the colored pearls after cooking them.
- Be sure to run the colored beads under cold water until the water turns clear. This may take some time or several rinses. This will help later on in the sensory bin and prevent it from turning all red.
- Adjust the Water Level – Add more or less water depending on how squishy or liquid-based you want the sensory bin to be.
- Use Safe & Edible Materials – Since tapioca pearls are food-based, this sensory bin is safe for little ones who might be tempted to taste. Even though using tapioca pearls is harder than using water beads, avoid using them.
Play2Learn Toddler & Preschool Programs for Curious Toddlers
There is no limit to your toddler’s energy and curiosity. That energy and curiosity although a joy can be challenging at times. Their interest in just about everything around them is what makes them great learners. One and two year olds can soak up so much just from their senses!
But as a teacher or parent that thirst for learning can be exhausting. That is why I created this toddler and preschooler program. To help you get the most out of this time with your curious toddler without having to come up with creative ways to play and interact with them.
Play2Learn for Toddlers includes 20 Units for toddlers. Each 2-week toddler unit has 20 super easy to set up and engaging activities for toddlers 18 months to 3 years.
Play2Learn Preschool which includes 20 Units for preschoolers. Each 2-week preschoolers unit has 20 unique and easy to set up and engaging activities for preschoolers 3 years to 5 years. That’s over 800 learning activities for your toddler and preschooler at your fingertips! So many ideas you and your child will never be bored again!
These toddler and preschool lesson plans and activities will definitely keep you and your toddler and preschooler busy playing and learning!
Click here for more information: Play2Learn
Book: Exciting Sensory Bins for Curious Kids
Did you know I wrote a book of sensory bins? Click here for more information Exciting Sensory Bin for Curious Kids. Or grab your copy at Amazon.
Boring afternoons are made exciting with awesome animal-based bins, like Salty Shark Bay or Yarn Farm. Pretend play bins like Birthday Cake Sensory Play or Bubble Tea Party encourage creativity and imagination. And your kids will have so much fun they won’t even know they’re getting smarter with STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) activities like Sink or Float Soup, Magnetic Letter Hunt or Ice Cream Scoop and Count.
Designed for toddlers 18 months and up.
Book: Super STEAM Activity Book for Kids
Learning all about science, technology, engineering, art, and math sets kids up for scholastic success―and it can be so much fun! Watch kids enjoy building STEAM skills as they color friendly fish, help water find its way to tree roots, solve math problems with mazes, and more.
Find out more and grab your copy here.
Designed for preschoolers 3 years old and up.
Book: Big Book of Riddles for Kids
Riddle me this: What’s an exciting way to practice critical thinking while having a blast? The Big Riddle Book for Kids, of course! From hilarious puns to tough brain teasers, kids can build problem-solving skills with hundreds of riddles tha. t show them how to think outside the box.
- 350 riddles for kids—Have hours of fun with riddles, puns and jokes, and math and logic puzzles that’ll get their wheels turning!
- Level up their skills—Riddles get trickier as kids progress through the book, challenging them as they get better at solving puzzles!
- Double-check their work—Kids can check their answers in the back of the book with a handy answer key.
Help children expand their minds while having fun with this puzzle book for kids!
Designed for kids ages 6 years old and up.
TV Show: Curious Crafting
I’m so excited to share my crafting TV show Curious Crafting which launched in July 2022 on TVOkids and TVOkids YouTube! Season 2 aired in August 2023! My show was also nominated in 2023 for Best Live Action Preschool Series by the Youth Media Alliance Awards of Excellence.
Curious Crafting Season 1 is also now airing in Australia on ABC! Watch it here!
Set in the ultimate crafting space, Curious Crafting is a short form pre-school age series about the joy of making crafts. I lead a rotating cast of adorable little preschoolers (including my own) making magic out of common household objects.
In each episode we transform recycled items into magical crafts like a milk carton school bus, paper bag puppet or cotton pad turtle. The crafters learn and laugh their way through each activity while demonstrating what their young imaginations can create.
Curious Crafting shares the adventure and joy of making art with takeaway lessons for creating crafts at home.
This show designed for toddlers and preschoolers 2.5 years old and up.
