How to Set Up a Potion Station: Printable Potion Labels for Pretend Play
A potion station is a tray or a low shelf of small jars, each with a printed ingredient label, plus a few signs around the room that say where potions go. Four Enchanted Forest PDFs make the whole station: two sizes of potion labels, round place labels and large place signs. You print them; your child fills the jars and decides what each potion is for.
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The four printables
Each one is a separate PDF. $1.99 each, and free for VIP members.
- Enchanted Forest Potion PlayRounds: 15 potion ingredient labels on one sheet of Avery 8293, 1.5 inch rounds, 20 per sheet. The last 5 repeat, so a favourite can go on two jars. For spice jars and small cups.
- Enchanted Forest Jar Labels: the same 15 ingredients at 2 inches on Avery 22825, 12 per sheet, 2 sheets. For bigger jars and tubs.
- Enchanted Forest Place PlayRounds: the 8 forest places on Avery 8293 rounds. Stick them on boxes, doors or shelf edges.
- Enchanted Forest Place Signs: the same 8 places as large colour-coded signs, 4 per page on 2 letter pages. Tape them up where a child can see them from across the room.
The 15 ingredients: Old Oak Wand Wood, Mushroom Ring Soil, Fairy Bed Moss, Troll's Whiskers, Unicorn Fluff, Princess's Lace, Mermaid's Pearls, Dew Drops, Kraken's Bones, Pixie Dust, Starlight Shards, Elf Knight's Mail, Basilisk Eggs, Moon Drops and Dragon's Scales. The 8 places: Mushroom Ring, Old Oak, Owl's Hollow, Wishing Well, Fairy Glen, Troll Bridge, Unicorn Meadow and Mermaid Pool.
How to print them
- Pick the label sheet. Avery 8293 for the 1.5 inch PlayRounds. Avery 22825 for the 2 inch Jar Labels. The Place Signs print on plain letter paper.
- Print at 100%. In the print box choose Actual size or 100%, never Fit to page. Fit to page shrinks the circles and they miss the labels.
- Test once on plain paper. Hold the test print over a label sheet against a window. If the circles sit inside the labels, load the label sheet and print for real.
- Feed one sheet at a time if your printer tends to grab two.
How to set up the potion station
- Find a base. A baking tray, a shoebox lid or the bottom shelf of a bookcase. Anything with an edge keeps jars from wandering.
- Gather jars. Spice jars, baby food jars, small cups, lidded tubs. Eight to fifteen is plenty, and they do not need to match.
- Put out loose parts. Moss, beads, buttons, a twist of lace, dried beans, pebbles, a pinch of glitter. Set them out in bowls next to the empty jars.
- Hand over the labels. Your child fills each jar and chooses which label goes on it. Moss might become Fairy Bed Moss. Pearl beads might be Mermaid's Pearls. Or something else entirely; that call is theirs.
- Put up the places. Your child tapes the 8 place signs around the room or the house: the front door, the stairs, under the table. The round place labels go on boxes or baskets that become those places.
Playing at the potion station
Once the jars are full, the station runs itself. Some days it is a shop: your child stands behind the tray and you come to buy Moon Drops for the Wishing Well. Some days it is a courier service and the jars travel up and down the stairs to Owl's Hollow and Troll Bridge. Some days a recipe gets invented and two jars are poured into a third.
Nobody has to finish anything. A half-filled tray on Tuesday is still there on Saturday, and the play picks up where it stopped.
If your child wants the forest to hand out jobs, the Enchanted Forest PahKet on printableplayables.com is the screen version: it asks for one delivery at a time and remembers where every jar ended up. Potion Courier is the same forest told as a delivery service. The jars and labels stay the same; the carrying still happens on foot. For how a delivery game plays out, with photos, read Enchanted Forest potion play on our Printable Playables blog.
The honest part
The round labels only line up on the exact Avery sheet. On plain paper you will be cutting circles. Beads, beans and pebbles are small, so swap in bigger pieces like pine cones and pom poms if a baby is in the room. And glitter gets everywhere. A tray under the jars saves a sweep.
Questions parents ask
What is a potion station?
A small pretend-play corner: real jars filled with loose parts, each wearing a printed ingredient label, and a few signs that say where potions go. The child fills, labels, mixes and delivers.
What jars work best?
Small jars with flat sides or flat lids, so a round label sits flat. Spice jars and baby food jars suit the 1.5 inch PlayRounds. Bigger jars and tubs suit the 2 inch Jar Labels.
Can I print the labels on plain paper?
Yes. Print at 100%, cut out the circles and tape them on. Avery 8293 and 22825 save the cutting.
Which Avery labels do I need?
Avery 8293 for Potion PlayRounds and Place PlayRounds (1.5 inch, 20 per sheet). Avery 22825 for Jar Labels (2 inch, 12 per sheet). The Place Signs use plain letter paper.
Can a child who does not read yet play?
Yes. Every label and sign has a picture and a colour as well as a name, so a child can match a jar to a place by looking.
Do I need the PahKet?
No. The four PDFs work on their own. The PahKet on printableplayables.com adds a screen that hands out delivery jobs; the filling, carrying and deciding still happen away from it.
Practically Playing™
