Harry Potter Party Part Two

The previous post showed you wands, robes, sorting hat & horrible beans!  Next the lessons….

The first lesson we did was Divination, we bought some old tea cups from a charity shop and then painted some shapes on the bottom with glue and stuck tea leaves onto the glue.  We covered the patterns with more tea leaves which the kids had to cast a spell over Ostendo Sum Posterus (Latin for Reveal The Future!) and then tipped the tea leaves out.  We then used this manual for the kids to decode the images.  

This was a really calm activity to do as they were all sitting on the floor, looking up their shapes in the book and reading out loud.  It also took a lot less time than I planned so we said it was break-time and the kids could go play for a bit.  Off they ran upstairs and one bedroom was Ravenclaw dormitory and one was Gryffindor!

Next lesson was Potions which was probably my favourite activity. I made a Potions Handbook detailing a number of potions for them, all based on kitchen chemistry experiments like bicarb and vinegar.  We had set up a Potion cupboard with all the potions they needed and some bottles I’d made for Halloween.  I’ve been collecting glass bottles for ages!  They had to collect the potions required for each potion. 

The Volcano Potion – spell Erumpo

Wow!!!

How did you do that!?

The Potions lesson was finished with an exam where the kids had to make a Cultivatum Victus potion.  We had taken 2 plastic spoons and taped then together, putting food colouring paste in between, liquid didn’t work.  The food colouring was hidden from them and casting the spell Aqua Infectum they had to stir the spoon in a glass of water and if the colour changed they would pass!  Of course they all passed and I tried it with a spoon without food colouring and it didn’t work until they shouted the spell extra loud!

Next lesson was Charms aka Musical Statues, the kids had to cast spells (Petrificus Totalus or Immobilus) to freeze each other, they then counted to ten and were able to move again.  This got very noisy and chaotic but it gave us time to get the food sorted out. 

After a lot of debate about cakes in the shape of Hogwarts or Golden Snitch, Books, School Badge I got realistic about my cake making skills and reminded Miss M that in The Philosphers Stone Hagrid brught Harry a cake with misspelled icing. 

It doesn’t count as a Cake Wreck when its deliberately bad!

The last part of the party was the Exam with questions about the books such as which platform does the Hogwarts Express leave Kings Cross Station?  Of course they were all given help if they needed it especially as some of the girls didn’t know much about HP but Miss M stormed through her answers and was the first to finish will 100% which made her chuffed!

Their Party Bag to go home was full of Honeydukes Sweets.  I made up bags of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans (no nasty flavours in this lot though!), Sherbert Lemons and Chocolate Frogs. 

The best thing was the Chocolate Frogs, I managed to find frogs and I made the pentagram wizard collectable cards and laminated them!

I made ones with Severus Snape, Merlin, Helga Hufflepuff, Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, Salazar Slytherin and of course Albus Dumbledore.  Snape is my favourite and the Chocolate Frogs were the best thing I did for the whole party.  I got most of the information on the cards from Harry Potter Wiki which was a huge source of information, pictures and ideas.  As well as the sweets the kids took home their wands, robes, slice of cake and a certificate printed on parchment.   

In way of a Thank You letter I mocked up a Daily Prophet newspaper and printed on parchment paper again. 

So that was our Harry Potter party, yes it was a lot of work but boy did we have fun.  I had fun creating all these elements and they really did add to the overall effect of the party.  Speaking to the kids and their mums since its clear it was a great party and they all loved every minute of it and that's what's important. 

Sorry these posts have been so long and picture heavy but if it helps you to throw a similar party then I’m glad.  Good luck!

Resources

http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/html/harry_potter.html
http://harrypotter-birthday.com/
http://www.amazingmoms.com/htm/party_hrrypttr.htm
http://www.mugglenet.com/misc/rosmertas/index.shtml
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/features/crafts/potterparties
http://www.best-birthday-party-ever.com/harry-potter-party.html
http://marthashmartha.blogspot.com/2010/04/welcome-to-hogwarts.html
http://myharrypotterparty.blogspot.com/
http://www.britta.com/hogwarts/recipes.html
http://dirtandsunshine.com/harry-potter-party.html
http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/html/harry_potter_parties_3.html#
http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/html/harry_potter_parties_8.html#
http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/html/harry_potter_parties_15.html#
http://myharrypotterparty.blogspot.com/
http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/html/harry_potter_parties_10.htm
http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
http://www.jkrowling.com/

I shall be linking up with all these lovely link parties this week