Magic Potion (or Mad Scientist)

Pick some colors. I went with five. Decide on what songs those colors will represent. For example, Purple = Popcorn Popping, Red = I Lived In Heaven, etc.


Get enough cups and spoons for each color. Make sure the cups are clear. I went with those picnic cups and spoons so that I could throw them out when I was done. This gets a bit messy.

Place the cups on a cookie tray (for spills). Fill most of the cups about halfway with water. I filled 3 with water. Fill the other cups about halfway with white vinegar. I filled 2 with white vinegar.

Place one or two drops of food coloring on each spoon. Now add some baking powder over top. Not so that the spoon is heaping, but enough to definitely cover the food coloring. I now like to add some sparkles to each pile of baking soda, just to make it look cooler.

The idea is that a kid comes up, picks a spoon, and puts it into a cup. Whatever color it turns, is what song you sing. If the cup is vinegar and fizzes, you get to do something extra special for that song (for example, Sing Like A..., Simon Says, etc).


The kids LOVE this one, especially the older kids. They think it's awesome when the vinegar cups spill over with fizz. I made sure I went into the primary room about 10 minutes early to set up. I brought a 1L bottle full of water. My bottle of vinegar. My baking tray. Some tea towels to clean up. A large bucket or jug to pour the used 'potions' into. A box of baking soda. All spoons, all cups. My food colors in a plastic baggie.

I do Junior and Senior Singing Time separately, so I set up both sets before primary started at all. That way when the Juniors were done and the Seniors came in, everything was made, I just had to quickly remove the Junior's used potions, and lay out the filled cups and spoons for the seniors.

I had little colored stars that represented the colors that the cups would turn, and each star had the corresponding song name (with the page number) on the back.

A cool thing to do would be to find a set of old beakers or test tubes to make a Mad Scientist display. I wore my witch costume for the Magic Potions, you could wear a lab coat for the Mad Scientist. Kids love it when you dress up!