Kitchen magic tricks for kids

About these tricks

The kitchen cupboard is a magic shop: salt, pepper, washing-up liquid, a spoon, an egg, a glass of water and a bit of juice. Most of these tricks are real science that looks exactly like magic, like pepper running away from a soapy finger or an arrow turning round behind a glass of water.

Everything here is food-safe or a dry tool that never goes in the mixture, and every potion is for looking at, never for drinking. Do the trick first and explain it afterwards: the science is a second surprise, and every trick page has it in a child's words. Ask a grown-up before taking anything out of the fridge.

By level, 10 Apprentice (works the first try) and 1 Conjurer (a little practice). They come off 2 shelves of the shop, most from The Potion Lab (9) and The Everyday Shelf (2). What you need most often: kitchen things (11), a cup or glass (6), paper (4). 1 trick has a step a grown-up does (something hot or a bright light), and 2 tricks carry the choking note for brothers and sisters under 4. The quickest to learn is Pepper Scatter (2 minutes); the longest is The Colour-Changing Potion (10 minutes).