Harry Potter Party: a student's life at Hogwarts

Welcome to Hogwarts

House Banners (it is possible to buy them online, but I made my own by mounting colour printouts on Bristol board)

 

I set up several different activities, loosely related to classes at Hogwarts.

Defense against the Dark Arts / Dueling Club

Each student will be able to choose his wand, from a great assortment (carefully selected from nature by the birthday boy on a recent walk.....I am glad to put his long-time habit of stick collecting to productive use!)

Students can practice casting spells in a wizarding duel game I created.

  

Each wizard rolls a die. The two highest rolls will battle, the highest roll of those two gets to cast the spell. To cast a spell you pick a card from each of two decks (marked "1" and "2") on each card is a magical word (mostly quasi-Latin words, taken from actual spells in the HP books) and a definition. The two cards combined may result in wacky spells that the little wizard under attack must act out. I added an extra layer to the game by including a third deck of protective or restorative spells. Any time a player rolls a 3, they can pick a card from the deck marked "3" and use it to defend themselves at a time of their choosing. 

I was a little worried that this game would be lame, but they loved it! It was cool to see that the good readers became very useful in this game, with those less sure of their reading skills turning to them for help. There was rarely a moment during the party when at least one kids wasn't leafing through the cards or actively casting spells on the others.

 

Care of Magical Creatures

Dragon eggs, waiting to hatch.

I created these eggs by covering balloons in papier mache. To put a creature in each egg, I left an opening in the mache, popped the balloon, stuffed in the animal (selected from a package of plastic safari animals from the Dollarama) and papered over the hole. To give the eggs a whimsical look, I painted them with various colours of paint and sparkles.

I hid two mini "friends" for each animal that was hatching.

 Each little wizard will search for two smaller versions of the big animal that hatched from their egg, one of each little pair is guarding a special egg of its own.
The eggs were smashed open in a matter of seconds.  The wands were very useful in achieving this! As I had feared some kids started getting a bit upset if they didn't find their creatures right away. I was glad I hadn't hidden them too well, and encouraged them to help each other. 

Potions

Vials and bottles of magic powders and liquids await at potions class.

 Each student will have a chalice and mixing stick for making their potions. By combining the ingredients (Kool-Aid, baking soda, and water) the students are sure to come up with colourful concoctions that may bubble out of control (really cool bubbling effect, similar to baking powder and vinegar, but smells much more pleasant). The potions will not taste great, but they will be edible, for those who dare to try.

This was one of the most popular activities, and, if I had more supplies, some of them would have been happy to mix all day. One thing I did not predict was that they wanted to take their potions home, so having little bottles that could be labeled and would not leak would have been a plus.

 

Charms class

The students will learn to reveal the secrets hidden in bundle of scrap paper.

Each little wizard grabbed a piece of paper and tapped it with their wand while speaking the marauders' incantation  "I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good" and then painting over the paper with a magic brush (they pain with grape juice concentrate, which darkens the baking powder and water solution I used to paint a letter on each paper).

The Fat Lady guards the portrait hole

The student wizards will then have to work together to organize their letters into the secret password, and earned entrance through the portrait hole into Gryffindor Tower (the birthday boy's room).

 

Divination 

 I set up a crystal ball (a big iridescent bouncy ball, which lights up when bounced), to teach the art of reading the orb; a bunch of tea cups and some loose leaf herbal tea, to read the leaves; and we could even do some palmistry, if the mood strikes

 

The party was a success, everyone went home happy and excited about Harry Potter.

After the party, I treated myself to a chocolate frog, and, could it be more perfect? the wizard on my collector's card was the Hogwarts Librarian!

Harry Potter Party: Magical snacks

There are recipes out there to help you recreated the various foods eaten throughout the Harry Potter books, but again, sticking to my plan of not putting effort into really specific details from the books that may not be understood by the party guests, I went for fun and easy foods to which I could put a magical twist. You will notice that the snacks table features a couple of LEGO Harry Potter sets!

The Enchanted Forest of broccoli (next to Hagrid's Hut, of course)

Located behind Hargrid's hut is a giant nest of dragon's eggs. We also have a bowl of owl food (mixed nuts), and the Knight Bus is driving past a jar holding magic wands (bread sticks).

 

And what birthday party would be complete without a cake!

On special request from the Birthday Boy, a double decker Oreo cake. I am sure that the high chocolate content will be an excellent remedy for any unexpected Dementor attacks.

 

Harry Potter Party: Party Favours

 

Nimbus 2000 goodie bags:

The widely admired broom, will be a take home treat for the little wizards.

Inside the broom, ball shaped chocolates stand in for the four Quidditch balls.

A golden wrapped lindt ball is perfect for the snitch.

Glow sticks are always a hit. These large sticks serve double duty as the handle of the broom stick, and then as an illuminated wand.

 

The broom sticks

 

Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans

Like all Hogwarts students, my wizards will surely be craving candies from Honeydukes.

 

While it is possible to buy the official product on jellybelly.com, or amazon.com, I am happy with this reasonable facsimile: assorted "gourmet" jelly beans and home-made labels.

 

Chocolate Frogs

The big splurge - Chocolate Frogs, including wizard collector's cards!!!

I am excited about these cards, but at the same time, I think it is the one thing that the kids who don't really know/love Harry Potter won't really appreciate.

 

Games and party food to come in future posts.....

Harry Potter Birthday Party

I am planning a Harry Potter themed birthday party for my son's 7th birthday. It is a bit of a unique challenge for me, in comparison to some of the other Harry Potter parties I have found documented on the web, because, while my son is crazy about Harry Potter, most of his friends don't know much about the books. This means, I will have to come up with fun activities related to Harry Potter that will be fun and interesting even to those with very limited Harry Potter knowledge. The invitations have gone out.

Stay tuned to future posts on wizarding games, snacks, and party favours!
Here is a Pinterest board where I have been gathering ideas. I won't credit each inspiration in my future posts, but you'll see that I have done versions of many things suggested in the sources on my board.

Mother/Librarian

I am a mother and a librarian, this blog will chronical some of the projects I undertake in both of these realms. It will be fun for me, and I hope you enjoy it too!