Harry Potter Party Besides Harry Potter Decorations and Harry Potter Crafts, here are a few ideas for activities and games to help you to have a successful Harry Potter Party.

As children enter, sort them into Houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin (note that some children might get upset if they get sorted into Slytherin!) Have a Sorting Hat (Witch Hat or Wizard Cap) and fill it with "name badges" that have each of the four houses (or three, or just Gryffindor then everyone will be happy!) And make a blank line on the badges where children can write their name (don't forget to provide a pen.) Each child selects a name badge from the cap, and is sorted into the designated House! You might want to liven things up a bit by playing some scary (or not-so-scary) Halloween music or sound effects, or you could play the Harry Potter Soundtrack (it's terrific!--I got it for my birthday!) Or you could handout lyrics to the Hogwarts' School Song and have everybody sing! The Hogwarts School Song can be found on page 128 of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (paperback) Or the following link (Hagrid's Hut): http://www.hagridshut.com/myworld/hogwarts/song.htm Provide Harry Potter Games and Trivia: Harry Potter Wizard Challenge (Scholastic) http://www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/ KidsRead.com presents...Harry Potter Games http://www.kidsreads.com/harrypotter/games.html Somewhere in the room or in the library, be sure to have a display of books with a nice big colorful sign: "If you like Harry Potter, then try some of these!" Here are a few links for Harry Potter related reads: If you like Harry Potter...(from the Logan Library) http://www.logan.lib.ut.us/booklist/fsf/potter.htm If you like Harry Potter...try these books too! (from the Salt Lake County Library System) http://www.slco.lib.ut.us/harry.htm If you liked Harry Potter, try these...(from the Weber County Library) http://www.weberpl.lib.ut.us/harrypotter.htm At the end of the party, as kids are leaving, make sure each child picks up their Hogwarts School of Witchraft and Wizardry Certificate of Graduation. I made some for our Harry Potter Party using Printshop and different fonts as signatures of four of Hogwarts' Faculty members. These certificates can be in black and white, or in color (whatever you decide!) Design the certificate to print out in landscape. My Printshop program has the following graphics: an owl with a graduation cap on, a wizard with an owl flying overhead, a blank banner, and a certificate graphic. I placed the owl and the wizard in the two top corners of the sheet. At top center, were the following: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (the banner font) Upon the Recommendation of the Faculty has conferred on (blank line) Certificate of Graduation Given at (name of your) Library, on the (number) day of (month) two thousand and one (or whatever the year happens to be!) And in three separate sections at the bottom were two of the signatures, the certificate graphic and two more signatures. The signatures were as follows: A line for the signature, and below the line, printed "Headmaster Albus Dumbledore" Below Dumbledore's name, another line for the signature, and below the line, "Professor Severus Snape." On the other side of the certificate graphic in the same design as the two wizards signatures, were the insignia of "Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall" and "Hogwart's Librarian Madam Pince" (of course!) The font I used for most of the certificate was either a "Storybook" or "Old English Text." For the signatures, I believe I used "Palace Script" for Albus Dumbledore, "Viner Hand ITC" for Severus Snape, "Rage Italic" for Minerva McGonagall, and a "Palace Script" or "Vivaldi" for Madam Pince. Most of these fonts, and others are available online for downloading to your computer. I'd suggest playing around with the fonts, as well as the font sizes to see what works best!

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.