One of my all-time favorite activities to do with my students is to make Witch’s Brew in a Cup. I have been doing this activity for years and my students who visit from previous years always bring it up as one of their favorite memories.
At the end of October, I introduce main idea and details to my students. I decided this activity is a great introduction and it is delicious too.
I wrote a poem to make Witch’s Brew in a Cup. I put it on a single sheet and I also made a mini booklet with the poem. To prep for this activity, you will want to send home the wish list to your parents or purchase the items yourself. Here is a picture of the ingredients you will need.
Once you have your ingredients, you will want to print the Halloween-themed labels and put them on paper bags. I like to have one bag per student so they can all participate. To do this, you will just split up the ingredients needed in the bags. I highly recommend waiting until the morning before you plan to do it as sometimes the ingredients get the bag a little greasy.
Once you have the bags prepped, pass out the mini books and give each child a bag. I bring the poem up front with me and we gather around in a large circle on the floor. I like to use a large cauldron to collect the ingredients. I also like to wear a witch’s hat just for some extra fun. You will need a large spoon to mix the ingredients. Then, you simply read your way through the booklet or poem and add the ingredients. If a student has “toad noses” when you get to that part, then they come up and dump it into the cauldron.
After you mix up the snack, you get to enjoy the treat. I have just recently made this one of my “snack in a cup” activities because I loved all the extensions that go along with the snack. You can grab a bundle of different snack-in-a-cup activities here.
Once we have finished mixing the snack, I dish it out into cups and then I introduce main idea and details with the colorful posters I created. We review what we put in the brew and have a great discussion.
There are several other extensions you can do once you have made it. There are writing extensions, graphing, sequencing activities, and a matching activity.
We love to make the paper craft to match the snack. I have included two kinds of crafts in this product. There is a color and cut craft and a cut and paste craft. You can use the craft to graph if they like Witch’s Brew in a Cup or not. There is a little recipe card you can send home with the children at the end of the day, too.
You may want to read about similar activities such as Pumpkin Pie in a Cup, Friendship in a Cup, & Bird Nest in a Cup.
Check out my other cup activities:
Here is what a few buyers had to say about Witch’s Brew in a Cup:
“My 1st grade students absolutely loved this resource! It was a fun Halloween activity that also reinforced the reading and writing skills we’ve been practicing so far this year. It was so engaging and fun that they didn’t really realize they were learning! I’ll most certainly use it again next year!!”
“It is almost May and my class STILL talks about this activity every time I mention main idea! So much fun and will for sure be doing every year!”
“My team and I loved this resource for our Witches Brew activity. It was so easy to follow and the students were thrilled about this. They still talk about it to this day!”
