real world Quidditch

[kkersey_austin]

The rules mentioned in that article are pretty similar to the ones we
use at our church's Harry Potter summer camp, except that we made
brooms out of foam pipe insulation tubes and raffia (a bit safer for
the kids). We tied strips of cloth to each end of the broomstick so
that they could tell who was on which team. A red kickball for the
Quaffle, a couple of those sponge-filled swimming pool toy balls for
the bludgers, and a foxtail with wings attached to the ball part and
the tail tucked into a back pocket or waistband for the snitch. The
beaters each carried a short bat made out of pipe insulation foam;
they were not supposed to run with the bludgers in hand. 

Having one neutral player as the snitch runner worked really well.

When I went over the rules with the kids, I told them that the game
was supposed to be totally confusing so if they had no idea what was
going on they were playing it right. ;-) Actually, it worked out well.
For the youngest kids we didn't bother with the beater positions at
all, and it was easy to add an extra chaser or subtract a beater if we
didn't have exactly fifteen players in the group. Putting the team
colors on the brooms turned out to be a good idea because it was *hot*
 - a kid who wanted to take a breather could just hand off the broom
to whomever was ready to jump in, without interrupting the game. Total
chaos, but fun.

Elisabet