Calling All Creative Wizards and Muggles!
Wizards, Muggles, Blog Readers, lend me your Extendable Ears! I need your help.
You may remember from previous entries that I have two younger sisters: a 24-year-old avid Harry Potter fan and a 15-year-old Twihard (what can I say? mama raised us nerdy).
My 24-year-old sis just received word that her proposal to start and counsel a Harry Potter summer camp session at a local community college has been accepted. She will be welcoming groups of 10 to 13-year-olds to Hogwarts this summer.
She already has a bunch of ideas to make this day camp as magical as possible for her little wizards. For example, she has decided that each Hogwarts first-year will receive his or her very own wand. (Side note: check out these AMAZING instructions for making your own wand at home).
- These are made of paper!
So this is where you come in!
What activities would you suggest for a Harry Potter summer camp?
As I mentioned before, she already has some great ideas (and has sadly reminded me I’m too old to attend – very disappointing). She’s an excellent teacher and really passionate about making this the best experience possible for the kids (she’s a Gryffinclaw, if you will). I would love to present her with some activity ideas straight from Harry Potter fans like you.
-
Keep in mind the age group of the campers (10 – 13). Many activities online are geared toward much younger kids.
-
There is a budget, so while buying all the kids real invisibility cloaks sounds wonderful, it’s probably not logistically sound.
-
Recipes that don’t require a kitchen and don’t involve milk or nuts are especially welcomed.
-
Bonus points if there’s an educational component to your suggestion. My sister’s a chemistry teacher, so she’s all about teachable moments.
Be creative and have fun. The only bad suggestion is the one you don’t make!
Jess, this is fabulous! And those paper wands are amazing.
When I was involved with Wizarding World Press years ago, one thing they liked to do at release parties was to play a game of live wizard chess. You would mark off a large chess board on the floor of a large room and the kids would each assume the role of a chess piece. Two opposing players would then call out moves. Just have to be careful that the kids don’t really whack each other, but it was loads of fun!
I absolutely love that idea! That’s a great age group to teach chess and what better way to learn than to be part of a human chess board? Thanks so much! That’s excellent!
Muggle quidditch!
Done and done! Though she’s a little nervous about the brooms part. I suggested pool noodles.
While I love the idea of Wizard Chess, I only have a max of 16 students per camp session and 2 assistants. Unless we can alter how the game is played, we unfortunately do not have the bodies for it
However, if you have an idea of how to split the pieces into 8 and 8 or 10 and 10, I’d be all ears!
P.S. Thanks Jess and everyone who’s sending out ideas!
Um…can you adapt it to a “wizard checkers” kind of game? Y’know, for training purposes before they get to Hogwarts and play the real thing.
No ideas right now, but I will let this simmer for awhile…
You could have a trivia day which is Harry Potter based, possibly at the end of camp so that they could learn most of the questions before then.
Make Butterbeer!!
Pretend to be in the three Broomsticks or something..
Recipe as Follows:
Ingredients:
◦1 cup (8 oz) club soda or cream soda
◦1 cup (4 oz) butterscotch syrup (ice cream topping)
◦1 tablespoon butter
Directions:
Step 1: Measure butterscotch and butter into a 2 cup (16 oz) glass. Microwave on high for 1 minute or until syrup is bubbly and butter is completely incorporated.
Step 2: Stir and cool for 30 seconds, then slowly mix in club soda. Mixture will fizz quite a bit.
Step 3: Serve in two coffee mugs or small glasses; a perfectly warm Hogwarts treat for two!
It might not be the best thing in the world though..I would recommend cream soda over club…Anndd Its really sweet so expect a bit of a sugar high.
Other treats can be found here:
http://www.britta.com/hogwarts/recipes.html#frogs
I also understand it can be served hot or cold.
Just wondering – will the camp be be able to go outdoors or is it all inside? You could make a potions session where the kids collect ingredients (grass, flowers, twigs). Hmm, but actually writing that down it seems a bit weird… You could just get together a variety of harmless ingredients and see what they can make out of it? I have to do a similar thing for a science project, but you could call it “make your own potion” or something? I dunno, I’m just throwing ideas out there!
Maybe they could do something similar with real foodstuff ingredients, making an edible potion that is, in effect, designing your own recipe.
From what I understand, it’s indoors AND outdoors, so there’s some flexibility there
While invisibility cloaks may be a bit beyond the budget, perhaps general, everyday cloaks might be done. They would not necessarily have to be made from new cloth, either. I am thinking they could be a patchwork of material from old jeans or combinations of colors and patterns that even Luna might think was off the top….
(Is anything too crazy for the wizarding world?)
Darn… I was going to suggest they make some of the recipes from The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook… anyway…
Could they play Quidditch? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muggle_Quidditch
Hmmmm… would it be too nerdy to talk about the Latin words some of the spells are based on?
A Harry Potter Jeopardy game? With HP-related questions? The kids could compete as the different Houses…
They could pretend to duel… unless you think that could get too out of hand…
Ooops, someone’s already suggested Muggle Quidditch!
Wow, I’m really on a roll here…
If they could go outside, what about a Treasure Hunt? But a Horcrux Hunt? With clues about where they are hidden (a new clue with each Horcrux they find, but they get a clue to start with). Or maybe once they find the Horcrux, they have to do something to ‘defeat’ it??? You could use a stuffed snake for Nagini, a paper crown for Ravenclaw’s diadem, etc.
Wow I love this…Like really love it.
But I’ve always been one for Scavenger Hunts.
Yeah, I was thinking scavenger hunt, too…collecting ingredients for a potion. Sticks, pinecones, leaves from specific trees. Kind of a nature-appreciation exercise.
But what to do with all the “ingredients?” Maybe attach them all together to make a hybrid sort of tree? Use them to create a picture of a hippogriff or a dragon? (sticks for legs, acorns for teeth, acorn caps for eyes, leaves for feathers or scales…) Or make house shields. Um. There, that’s all I got!
And you could do the potions game, from the Philosophers Stone! You know, the one where they had to find out which potion to use to get through the fire.
How about creating a logic puzzle about various bottles of potion (similar to Snape’s puzzle in PS/SS)? I did this for Enlightening 2007. I got 5 bottles of various sizes/colors and placed a piece of parchment inside each, with a different 3 digit number on each piece of parchment. The goal was to use clues to solve the puzzle (figure out which bottle contained felix felicis) and get the correct combination to open a treasure box in less than 7 minutes. If you’re interested, I can email you the puzzle I created to use as an example– but, if I had it to do over, I’d make the puzzle harder to solve.
Maybe a “ball” at the end where everyone gets to come in their idea of dress robes, make butterbeer and some wizardy snacks ahead of time with the kids?
Oh, got another idea…a triwizard tournament, but between three teams (or 4 houses…a quartowizard tournament??). You’d have to come up with three tasks–you could invent some kind of “dragon” to get past (I’m thinking like soccer goals) for the first task, a massive hide-and-seek game or Easter-egg style hunt to mimic the 2nd task, and maybe an obstacle course instead of a maze? Winning team gets all the butterbeer they can drink! (Well, it’s better than meeting You-Know-Who, isn’t it?)
I loved chemistry in school and always wished we had been given some practical applications. You have a golden opportunity to get kids excited about chemistry and teach them how to actually use it in their everyday lives. Have a “Potions” class in which you use simple kitchen staples – baking soda, raw onions, anything that will react when heat or other ‘potions ingredients’ are applied. I’ll bet most of these kids will be on (or at least be familiar with) Pottermore by the time summer camp comes around – you could use a bread maker or a crock pot or something as a cauldron. The result of Potions class could be snack time.
What about making posters where they pick a particular line or character to feature?
I created something similar with a canvas (80 cents), but it could be done on thick paper or something of the sort. I used the lines to a Wizard Wrock song and decorated around that. I actually made one of those paper wands and attached it to the canvas: http://ourgoatrodeo.blogspot.com/2011/10/harry-potter-lumos-canvas.html
What about t-shirts? You can find them cheap or ask kids to bring their own white or light solid color shirt. Then just provide the permanent markers and ask them to decorate with HP-related things. I made a shirt like that for my daughters and then let them go crazy and create their own. Theirs is COVERED with things like the Weasley twins, flying keys, the snitch, Dobby, etc and it looks fantastic.
Thank you all for the wonderful ideas and advice! I’ve been reviewing your ideas and mixing them with my own to brew the best concoction of a camp I can! Please keep the suggestions coming. My biggest fear with this camp is that I will run out of activities.
If anyone knows of any place where I can find CHEAP versions of the following items, I would be forever grateful (I’ve been searching on my own, but I’m not sure if I’m looking in the right places):
-House scarves (all four houses). They do not have to be authentic, just the right colors.
-Stuffed owls (roughly beanie baby sized or slightly larger)
-Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans of some kind. They do not specifically have to be Jelly Belly’s version. I hear there are other (cheaper) alternatives
-Pool noodles
-Sorting Hat (my older sister is quite the fledgling seamstress, but I think this task may be out of her reach).
-Valerie (Soon-To-Be-”Hogwarts”-Headmistress)
P.S. I will do my best to keep everyone updated as to how the activities went. It is illegal to post pictures of the students online, but I may be able to squeeze in some photos of finished projects for everyone to see. It all depends on how hectic camp is. Stay tuned this July!