School Of Magic Party -9yr- Magic Spells

My daughter wanted a School of Magic party for her 9th birthday.  This was absolutely not a Harry Potter themed party but the basic idea was to attend The School of Magic and have lessons in wizarding.  Much of the planning was done in collaboration with my daughter as she had some definite ideas as to what she wanted to do. 

Invitations were kept simple - formal Invitations in Black and Gold.  On the inside You are invited to attend The School of Magic.  Come learn about Spells Charms and Incantations Herbology and the Care of Magical Animals and more."  plus the usual date time etc.  I purchased some fabric bound blank books (www.blankbooks.com) and some lovely witchy looking bookplates (steelgoddess.com).  I also preprinted a title on an Avery labels "The Seven Magical Arts" and also the Table of Contents for the seven magical arts - 1)Spells Charms and Incantations 2) Herbology 3) Potions 4) Divination Prophecy and FortuneTelling 5) Care of Magical Animals 6) Defense against the Dark Arts and 7) Transmogrification. 

When the guests arrived they were given their "Spell Book" and invited to paint and decorate the outside - I had black and purple paint lots of glitter glue puff paint and various colors of rhinestones and glue.  This was the first activity.  The second activity was to receive a wand.  I had prepared a Wizard Wand quiz ahead of time (a sort of Cosmo quiz for 9 year olds) and based on their answers to the quiz they found out the wood (Willow Hazel Hawthorn or Elder) of their wand and the heart of their wand (Dragon Talon Unicorn Hair or Phoenix Feather).  I had Avery label stickers for their books describing the meaning of their wood and the meaning of their heart and then they received their wands (chopsticks). 

After they received their wands we did a Spells Charms and Incantations class.  I taught them how to hold their wand to best focus the energy and then I taught them a couple of spells - Lumena and Tenebrum - to turn candles on and off.  I had some remote control wax candles and a convenient stooge and all the children had a couple of turns to turn the candles on and off and when they wanted to learn more spells we discussed changing colors and they learned more words to change the color of the candles.  This lesson was a big hit and they never did figure out how it worked. They received a sticker for their book.

After Spells Charms and Incantations we did Herbology.  I had created an array of herbs and spices and the first activity was just to identify the herbs and spices - I had names written on wooden sticks and the kids got to place the stick on the herb or spice. 

After this I had the 'magical use' of the herb or spice also printed and stuck on a stick and we had to match the magical use to the plant.  This was a lot of fun as I had looked up many magical uses - sage coves grey hair rosemary gets rid of lice and makes hair grow cure asthma by cooking half a cup of garlic in milk and drinking once a day etc.  The last part of Herbology was to plant some magic seeds in some magical growing medium.  I had "Naiad Tears" in a cool glass bottle.  I put a little in a see through cup and added colored water and showed them how the magic substance expanded and absorbed the water and the color.  I showed them the seeds we would plant - Nest Egg Gourd - and that we would be growing eggs.  They were then given their own cup and some grains of the Naiad Tears and given access to all the food coloring so that they could choose their color.  This was definitely a hit with the girls - and they shared their goop to make some interesting color mixes before planting their seeds.  They got a Herbology sticker for their book. 

The third lesson was Potions.  The lesson part was to make a "Potential Potion". If their potion did the same thing as mine then they had the potential to be great potion makers.  First we put Unicorn Blood in a cup (Red Cabbage water). We added Fermented Fireberries (white wine vinegar) and the potion turned red.  Then we added Powdered Unicorn Horn (bicarb of soda mixed up with glitter).  The potion foamed beautifully and turned blue again.  Once everyone was done with that they had free play to invent their own potion recipe.  Everyone had a bottle to take home their potion and there were lots of ingredients to play with - Troll Snot Dragon Poop Giant toenails - liquids and solids with various colors and smells.  They received a sticker for their book. After potions - definitely a hit - we moved into Divination Prophecy and FortuneTelling while my husband cleaned up potion making and got the table ready for food.  We discussed the methods of FortuneTelling that they knew about and then I gave them a worksheet to work out their BirthDate number and Birthname number.  This was a little challenging for them I will say so I had to help a lot.  The ten year olds had no problem with this though and were also helping the younger eight and nine year olds so everyone got their answer. 

Then we had food - pizza a large fruit plate and everyone got a jeweled goblet for their drink.  Eleri chose ice cream cupcakes for the birthday cake and candles….no school of magic cake for her.

After the meal we had the final few lessons…Care of Magical Animals we quickly discussed the magical animals they knew and then we learned about the Basilisk and played the game where one person was the Basilisk and tried to kill the others with their blink and they fell dead.  This game was a hit - played at least 6 rounds of this.  Another sticker for their book.  Defense against the dark arts - they learned about the Pentacle and got another sticker for their books.  Transmogrification - they got stickers on their back with the name of a magical animal and they had to find out what they were by asking yes no questions in order to change back again.  Another sticker for their book. 

So the party ended and no goody bags - kids took home their spell books with all their stickers for their wand wood and heart and the seven classes.  They took home their wand quiz and their wands.  They took home the seeds they had planted and their potions and took home a herbology cheat sheet and their numerology worksheet. They also took home their goblets. "