Published November 10, 2025 Written by [email protected]

Early years activity: Kindness potion

In the kindness potion lab, children mix ingredients for helping, sharing and other kind acts. This sensory, PSED focussed activity helps build language for feelings, turn taking and kind, gentle words.

Kindness potion activity learning aims

Identify simple kind actions and name related feelings
Practice turn taking and polite, gentle language
Recognise kindness in others and themselves.

Resources you will need for this activity

Jugs of coloured water
Other items to add such as herbs, glitter, leaves etc
Pipettes or small spoons
Potion bottles/jars/containers
Labels and coloured pens.

Kindness potion activity outline

Let the children know that they’re going to make a kindness potion. Ask them what being kind means. Offer an example of a kind act someone did for you and how it made you feel. Ask the children to do the same. Reinforce the language you are trying to encourage, for example, “When my friend helped me up when I fell over, I felt warm inside.” “When Adam shared his blocks with me, I felt happy and included”
Model making a potion. Narrate what you are doing and say why you’re choosing the ingredients you include. For example, “I’m putting in some purple water for sharing”, “I’m putting in some mint leaves for kind, gentle words”, “I’m putting in some glitter for helping others.” Other relevant words might be – welcoming (inviting to play), gentle words/hands, fixing mistakes, cheering on a friend
Encourage them to think of a name for their potion. For example, ‘Sara’s sharing potion’
Children can label their potions with either a picture, their name or their name plus what the potion does (as above)
Display the bottles and continue the kindness discussions.

How to extend this activity

Make a recipe card for the potion
Using a variety of coloured water children can predict the outcome of mixing the different colours.

NDNA products to support you with this activity

Building your nursery curriculum – Live Virtual Classroom

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Disclaimer: Activities with children must always be risk assessed, including for allergies or choking. Children must always have adequate supervision. Resources and materials must always be appropriate for children’s age and stage of development.

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