Wizard Week

Initially, this was going to be Science Week, but Ellie requested a Wizard Week, so I just tweaked my plans and made it happen. A few of the activities would suit an older crowd, especially since Katie hasn't read or watched any Harry Potter yet (Ellie has seen the first movie, and we read her the first book). Nevertheless, it was fun! It helped that I showed them a few relevant YouTube clips from the movies before the activities to remind Ellie and to give Katie a context for the activities. 

MONDAY

They woke up to find their owl mail with Hogwarts letters. 

We got ready to go to Hogwarts, finding our owls and supplies, like cauldrons and spellbooks, and making a few also, like hats and wands. 

One of the few specific requests Ellie made was to color a wizard picture. 

The wands we made with paper, hot glue, and paint. 

Then they practiced learning incantations and dueling. 

Even Anthony got into the wizarding spirit. 

TUESDAY

Potions day! I stayed up late relabeling a few household items to make our magical brews. 

Dry ice bubbles were a huge hit. We made big ones...

And lots of small ones!

I even rigged up a bubble blower so they could "catch" the bubbles. This kept us busy for a long time. 

Then we made "gloppity gloop," also known as oobleck. I had never done it before and was surprised that it wasn't as messy as I had thought. The girls liked making it slip through their fingers, then balling it up again. 

Next was "rainbow water", where we layered liquids of different densities in a bottle. 

The results were pretty. 

We took a break to eat some chocolate frogs (with wizard trading card and all!). 

Then we had one more potion to make... But an ingredient was missing! The Marauder's Map helped us find it. 

The ingredient found, we made a homemade bouncy ball to serve as our Golden Snitch later in the week. 

Anthony was asleep for potions (thankfully), but he played with the "Hogwarts Express" for a little while. 

WEDNESDAY

Herbology: we painted pots and planted seeds in them. 

We identified herbs from our garden by sight and smell. 

We made celery stalks change color. 

Charms: we created a chain reaction with popsicle sticks (let go of the end, and they go flying!). 

We made "swirling dervishes" with milk, food coloring, and soap. 

We blew up balloons with pop rocks and soda (Katie), and baking soda and vinegar (Ellie), and compared which was a better method. 

We gathered different items and predicted whether they would sink or float and then tested our hypotheses. We even made a rock float! 

We also played with gravity, dropping a rock and a feather to see what happens when they fall, and then we tried to "Wingardium Leviosa" our feathers. 

THURSDAY

Care of Magical Creatures: we fed my Betta fish, checked on our newest caterpillars, and then we "planted" sea monkey eggs. (Some have hatched now). 

I found dragon eggs that dissolve in water, so we hatched them. 

The baby dragon. They loved this, probably because the dragons were from How to Train Your Dragon. 

Then we made magical foam creatures. 

We also made dragon sock puppets. (The ones I made were for a specific purpose, and they will show up again at Katie's party!)

Divination: using clear glass ornaments, sand, glitter, sequins, and water, we made crystal balls. 

Fun, neat to look at...

... And easily breakable. Ooops. 

Our last activity was a sampling of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans. Ellie only had a few (and spat out most), Katie liked Booger flavor, and Anthony just ate them, voraciously and indiscriminately. Ewww. 

FRIDAY

Quidditch! 

Fun for all!

I only have 2 brooms, so we used a Swiffer too. 

Ellie reenacted Harry's famous first catch. The first Snitch we made got a little mangled, so we made a new one that worked perfectly.  

After having a great time with Quidditch, we had some refreshing Butterbeer. 

Then it was time for more potions! We made chewing gum with a kit I bought on Amazon. It tasted much better than I expected, but there was a lot of hard kneading, and I ended up doing most of the work. The girls did like chewing the results!

Lastly, I let the girls raid the pantry for ingredients (approved by me) to make their own potions. It was a fun, nasty mess!

And that was Wizard Week! Totally magical!

No planned theme this week because Ellie's at a camp, so I'm going to give Katie a little one-on-one time. I have a few creative ideas, but I get the feeling my little free spirit will just want to pretend-play with her dragon toys instead.