Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Teen Library Event: Harry Potter Yule Ball

It seems a bit silly to be posting about a holiday event in January, but the ideas could be used tfor a generic Harry Potter Party Year Round.

Teens were encouraged to come in fancy holiday attire or as their favorite characters. As they arrived, I sorted them into houses. They drew a colored piece of paper from a witch's hat. I used a marker to put a colored dot on their hands to correspond to their houses. They were then seated at houes tables.

We enjoyed refreshments while playing Harry Potter Jeopardy. The refreshments were Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans, Licorice Wands, Lemon Drops, Pumpkin Bread, Cheese, Crackers, and Butterbeer. Nobody liked the butterbeer. Luckily, we had soft drinks left over from November's event. Next time, I'll test out recipes in advance.

I sent out an SOS on PUBYAC in 2012 when I first started planning my Harry Potter event. Fellow librarians graciously shared their Harry Potter Jeopardy PowerPoints with me. I used these as well as the Harry Potter Lexicon to come up with 3 rounds of Jeopardy. The questions were strictly book based and my teens were not hard core fans so we had a lot of passes.

After eating and playing Jeopardy, the teens went on a Horcrux scavenger hunt in the library. I saw the idea on Pinterest. I gave them a list of the items to find and told them to think out of the box. I only gave them clues when they got stuck.

I had 2 craft options, but we ended up running out of time. The crafts were a Whomping Willow paper sculpture and an origami Christmas tree.

I had several photo ops set up around the room: Eeylops Owl Emporium, Platform 9 3/4, and a Christmas tree.

I also had a few other game ideas that we didn't get to: Dobby the House Elf Sock Toss (I found a picture somewhere online that talked about this game, but can't locate it now.), Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, and a Magical Creature Hunt.

Need more party ideas? Check out my Harry Potter Party Pinterest Board!

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