Summer break is always a tricky time to keep kids entertained, especially as a working parent. I work from home, which makes it easier to have the kids home all day with me, but makes it difficult to keep them occupied and off screens. This year my kids convinced me to plan themed weeks of activities, decorations, and sometimes food.
Themes for Summer Break: Disney, Oceans, Harry Potter, Spa Relaxation
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Quill Writing
My son loves to collect feathers and has asked to do quill writing for a while, but it fit perfectly with Harry Potter week!
The feathers were cut with a sharp angle to make sure they would write. We used water color ink, mainly black/blue/purple. The kids also used red to make a creepy message.
Would You Rather (Jenga Style)
I followed inspiration from a fellow blogger for this Jenga game. On the different jenga blocks I added a “would you rather” question, Harry Potter themed of course. If that block was pulled out the person answered the question before continuing.
A classic Jenga game is all you need! You could write the questions directly on the pieces but I chose to use labels so I could remove them afterwards.
Here is a download that prints on mailing labels – you just need to trim the bottom to fit the block. I would suggest duplicating the questions so every block has a question. At first I only did half the blocks and it went many rounds before someone pulled a question block.
Magic Milk
This is a cool experiment to try during Potions class or when you just need a little magic.
Materials: milk, food coloring, dish soap, q-tip, tray/pan
Steps:
- Pour a thin layer of milk in the tray/pan (about ¼” layer)
- Dot food coloring around randomly on the milk
- Dip the q-tip into dish soap
- Press the dish soap-covered q-tip into the food coloring dot and hold it there. The milk and food coloring should swirl away from the q-tip
You can try this with fun color patterns, like Hogwarts house colors or sunset colors.
Quidditch
To make a fun, water-filled game of quidditch I found butterfly nets at a local Dollar Store, but any butterfly net could work. We made bases to hold them up about 3 ft high.
Spread the bases apart outside and one kid stood in front as a goalie. I used reusable water balloons instead of a quaffle. The reusable ones make it easy to keep playing without stopping to refill balloons or break them before the game starts.
The goalie got sufficiently wet for any missed throws. And the net caught any balloons that made it through the hoop to make score keeping easier.
Transfiguration
Transfiguration is all about changing an object from one thing to another and playdoh is the perfect medium for that!
I made a list of different objects. The kids picked one randomly and made that object. Then they picked the next card and had to transform into that new object.
Herbology Investigation
Gardening and planting flowers are great choices for Herbology but they also take a long time to see the growth. I needed an activity that could be interesting and use things I had available in my house already!
I created an Investigation of Herbs! The idea is to give kids a chance to explore herbs used in cooking, what do the smells remind them of, are they willing to taste them?
I provided about ten herbs and a sheet to work through these questions. If your participants are very familiar with herbs you could also use this as a challenge to identify them by smell!
Horcrux Hunt
To cap off the end of Harry Potter week, I created a Horcrux Hunt! By this point we had done a few different scavenger hunt activities so I added more steps, more like an escape room. The kids loved decoding the numbers using the books!
Materials Needed:
- Objects to represent each Horcrux (or a picture of them): snake, diary, Harry figure, ring, diadem, locket, goblet
- All seven Harry Potter books
- Blank 12 piece puzzle
Step 1: Find the horcruxes
- Around the house I hid objects to represent the seven horcruxes: snake, diary, Harry figure, ring, diadem, locket, goblet
- I had ChatGPT create rhyming clues to lead to each object.
- Hidden with each horcrux was one (or two) puzzle pieces, which also were collected
Step 2: Decode the numbers
- On the back of each puzzle piece was a number code which lead you to a letter
- The code was “Book Number – Page Number – Letter Number from the Chapter Title” so if the code was “1 – 88 – 3” you would open Book 1, go to page 88, and write down the 3rd letter from the Chapter Title (which is E)
Chapter Six
The Journey from Platform Nine and Three-quarters
- After finding the letter, write it on the front of the puzzle piece in the spaces provided
Step 3: Assemble the puzzle
- Put the puzzle together and the letters will reveal the answer to this question:
Which book has two characters named after J. K. Rowling’s grandfathers?
Answer: Prisoner of Azkaban
J. K. Rowling’s grandfathers were named Stanley and Ernie. The Knight Bus is operated by Stan Shunpike and Ernie Prang.
