Silkysteps early years forum - planning ideas for play - Harry Potter Halloween

:cheerful: Read a post recently that brought back some memories!

We held a Harry Potter day to get over the 'stickiness' some groups experience in wanting to take part in fun Halloween activities.....

Here's what we got up to ....

:genie: Dressing up - for the children that didn't arrive already dressed up, there were cloaks, wings & wands at the ready in the role play area.

:stirthepo Magic colours !!
This would work just as well with watered down poster paint.

Using test tubes (easily available in the ‘bubble bath' aisle of most supermarkets nowadays!!) and Syringes (collect these from children’s pain relief boxes !!)
Drop a little food colouring into a test tube. Let the children add water and then another food colouring ... pop a cork/lid on and shake - what colours can you make !!
:wizard: Colour Spreading
Ask the children to colour a small design onto a piece of white kitchen paper with felt tip pens.
When finished let the children drop single droplets of water using a syringe (see above!!).
Watch how the water seperates and spreads the colours in the pen ink.
Let the paper dry and cut star shapes from them.
Glue into a collage and display with a write up of the science experiment !

:witch-gooAroma smelling
‘Ghostie’ cup sniffing!!

Decorate 6 small white plastic disposable cups with big black eyes and a smile!
Put in 4 cotton wool buds and drop on a spoonful of food essences or spices .. we used..
Almond essence
Nutmeg – dampened with water
Coffee – dampened with water
Cinnamon – dampened with water
Orange essence
Pop a label of what's inside underneath the cup!
As an open activity allow the children to wander 'through' and take a sniff of a Ghostie and see what they think of the smell!
:wizard: Hedwig Craft.
Use an OWL template and with snipped pieces of paper build up a feathered look. Use some orange felt and cut a triangle for a beak and talons.
You could also adapt this to make face masks.
:magicwand Broomsticks & Wands
Using rolled up A3 or lager paper, snip the ends for the brooms - Let the children have races on them.
Cut yellow card stars and glitter / sequin them and attach a lolly stick for them to wave magic around!

:witch-bro For the PSE element you could look at Glasses and why some people wear them and some don't .. that contact lens do the same job but people can't see them!
Physical looks - scars, beards, sizes, ages and appearances of different people.
:witch-wic Other Craft ideas.. depending how aware your children are of the 'Harry Potter' books...
Using junk modelling boxes build your own Hogwarts castle.
Use you small world play people to bring the castle to life!

Design a dragon - use templates or let the children design their own dragon the pieces you will need to encourage them to look for are
Head, Body, Tail, Legs, Wings
Additional parts... Spines, fire, claws, nostrils/eyes/ ears.

Snack time

:shootings Crackling candy’ for a snack experience!!
:shootings Breadstick wands and small pots of cream cheese to dip them in - Label up or decorate a small pot with 'Wand holder' written on and store the breadsticks in there until served!

:shootings Cucumber/grape/mini marshmallow/banana kebabs!

:shootings Small cherry tomatoes and sliced carrot sticks.

Gross halloween food selections will appear later .....:D

:shootings Try this MAGIC MUG TRICK during snack and amaze the children!
:shootings If you have time - make 'Tri coloured Jelly'. Allow the last colour to set before you pour on the next one!

:witch-goo Re-imagine your own resources!!

:key:Have your train set out and re name it 'Hogwarts express!
:key:Have a water tray with strips of green felt in (water reed) and lolly stick rafts or small boats to sail across the lake!
:key: Building bricks and other construction toys can be used to build castles, wagons, trains, Busses etc...