Halloween is just around the corner, and everyone is crafting ghoulish decorations, cool costumes and strategic trick-or-treating routes. Creating your own Witch’s Brew is a fun way to help you and your child get into the spooky spirit.

Here’s a step-by-step guide for making a sensory Witch’s Brew with your child.

What You’ll Need:

• 2 Paper plates
• Ziplock bag
• Dish soap
• Beads, charms, googly eyes, colorful cotton balls, etc. (for the brew!)
• Glitter
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Paint and paintbrush OR markers
• Tape
• Stapler
• Stickers (optional)
• Food coloring (optional)

Step 1: Paint Plate No. 1

• Paint the bottom side of one of the paper plates. You can paint it black or a different, preferred color. Let it sit and dry completely.

*If you don’t have paint, feel free to use markers!

Step 2: Fill Your Plastic Bag

• Open your plastic bag and add dish soap to fill about 1/5 of the way. Add a few of the different beads, charms, googly eyes, etc. to the bag. Add some glitter and seal the bag with as little air as possible. Mix the contents together and set to the side.

* If you want your brew to be a different color, feel free to add some food coloring into the mixture!

Step 3: Cut Out Brew “Container” Shape

• After Plate No. 1 is dry, draw a circle (or any kind of shape you’d like to create) on the other side of it. Use the scissors to cut out the shape that you drew.

Step 4: Put the Pieces Together

• Tape the plastic bag to the inside of Plate No. 2. Place Plate No. 1 on top of Plate No. 2 with the painted side facing up. Staple the edges together.

Step 5: Decorate

• Feel free to add stickers, paint or marker doodles, or a name to the front of your craft.

Step 6: Play!

• Enjoy playing with your very own homemade Witch’s Brew!

Alexia William is a child life and recreation therapies specialist at Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore. Kennedy Krieger’s Child Life and Recreation Therapies Department utilizes child life services, along with recreational and music therapists, to enhance the quality of life of young patients and contribute to their health and healing through nurturing play.