Crafts Selecting Crafts for a Harry Potter Party is actually quite easy. All you really haver to do is get ideas from your Halloween, Magic, Medieval, or Creepy Crawlies areas! This page suggests a few ways to be extra creative during your Harry Potter Party. Also, be sure to check out the Harry Potter "Related Links" for more ideas!

You are enrolled in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry! So what do you do once you're there? Go to classes, of course! Set up Tables with signs designating classes (see below.) Also be sure to provide all of the materials needed to make each of the crafts (you may want to set out crayons, glue sticks, and other craft materials in various-sized black cauldrons--plastic cauldrons are available at most stores during the month of October, and at most specialty stores throughout the year.) Be sure to display an example of the finished craft, as well. Here are a few ideas for each of the classes at Hogwarts:

Care of Magical Creatures In Care of Magical Creatures, the students of Hogwarts learn to care for magical and bizarre creatures. In your class, provide the following materials: paper lunch sacks, a roughly 5x7" cut-out face that can be colored (monster face, jack-o-lantern, etc.) Also provide crayons, glitter, glue, perhaps some extra construction paper and child-safe scissors. Have the kids color and decorate the monster face, as well as the paper sack. Then glue the face to the bottom (outside) of the sack, and the kids have monster puppets that they can take home and care for from your Care of Magical Creatures class! Divination In this class, Hogwart's students learn the art of reading tea leaves. You can do this if you like. But in your class, you could make this an art project. Provide different colored leaves (tea or tree) and twigs, acorns, pinecones, pretty much anything you might find on a nature walk. Also provide some glue, and let your student's imaginations run wild making collages on construction paper. A few suggestions for things to make: the whomping willow, Hedwig the Owl, or Hagrid (twigs give an added touch to Hagrid's fuzzy face!) Herbology In Herbology, students learn all about plants in this magical world. Your class assignment will include sturdy paper cups, dirt, a watering can (with water) and seeds (sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds.) First, let the kids decorate their cups with crayons, glitter, anything you might have on hand! After they decorate them, fill the cups with dirt, plant the seeds, water them, and the kids can take them home to watch them grow! History of Magic Class Well, you could bore your kids with the History of Magic, but I find it much easier to set out Harry Potter Quizzes instead. You can find some games and trivia online: Harry Potter Wizard Challenge (Scholastic) http://www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/ KidsRead.com presenets...Harry Potter Games http://www.kidsreads.com/harrypotter/games.html Potions Class I would suggest browsing the science projects section of your library for ideas. Here is one of my favorites (and the kids will love it!): Slimy Goo: Provide large clear plastic cups or plastic bags so the kids can take this one with them! In a cup, mix 1/3 c very warm water and 1 T Borax until it dissolves. Add a couple of drops of yellow and blue (green) food coloring (this is where Helpers can really come in handy!) In a separate bowl (old plastic containers work well) mix 2 cups Elmer's glue and 1 1/2 c water. Add the Borax mix to the glue mix; stir. A rubbery blob will emerge! Divide this up for students to take home! Tranfiguration Class In this class, you can provide pages for students to color and take home. Here are a few sites that offer Harry Potter Pages to color: Harry Potter (Warner Bros. Official Site) http://harrypotter.warnerbros.com/diagonalley/fb_pages.html Teaching with Harry Potter Theme Page http://atozteacherstuff.com/themes/harrypotter.shtml Quidditch! (A brief background) Quidditch is the National Sport of Wizarding. There are seven players (three Chasers, one Keeper, two Beaters, and one Seeker.) The game is played with four balls: the red Quaffle is used for scoring (ten points each score); the two black Bludgers try to knock players off their brooms, and the Golden Snitch has silver wings and is worth 150 points. The players fly around on their broomsticks. The Chasers throw the quaffle to each other and try to score by throwing it through one of the six hoops. The Keeper guards the goalposts and tries to prevent the Chasers from scoring. The Beaters try to keep the Bludgers away from their teammates, and try to get the Bludgers to attack the opposing team. The Seeker tries to catch the Golden Snitch (which usually wins them the game!) The Golden Snitch Here are a few ideas for making a Golden Snitch: Take a small styrofoam ball (about the size of a ping pong ball) and spraypaint it gold. Next take silvery feathers (1 & 1/2 to 2 inches long) or a silvery thin foam board and cut it in the shape of feathers. If these pieces are already colored, then all the kids have to do is attach the wings to the snitch: poke the feathers into the ball, one on each side, or the sturdy foam board cut-out, if cut correctly to allow this. Another version of the wings is to cut them so they are attached (like most angel and butterfly costumes are) and then attach them to the ball using floral wire. The floral wire can also be used to attach a loop to the "top" of the snitch, and then the golden snitch can be hung using fishing wire!

To provide comments and suggestions, please send an owl This site was created by D. Carroll as a resource for Children's Librarians of the Utah Library Association. Graphics from Cliphoto.com (http://www.cliphoto.com), and Harry Potter Philosopher's Shop (http://www.geocities.com/lumen_dei/) All material related to the J.K. Rowling novels is copyright Scholastic Books and Bloomsbury Publishing. All material related to the "Harry Potter" films is copyright Warner Bros.