HP4GU Contest #10 results

[joym999 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 23473

Here are the results of the HP4GU Contest #10, in which you were 
asked to submit creative ideas for a HP-themed party or fair.  And, 
once again (you would not believe how tired I get of saying this) 
what the responses lacked in quantity they make up for in quality.

Only three people -- Rucha, Catlady and Julie -- felt creative this 
week, but they all have submitted great suggestions.  Julie, in 
particular, has offered enough fun and games to keep any bunch of HP 
fans amused for days.  Thanks very much to our three creative 
people.  A new contest will be posted tomorrow.

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Hi!  I almost immediately thought of McGonagall's giant chess set 
when I read about the contest. Now that would be a cool game to have. 
Decide on a time period, for costumes, the more elaborate, the 
better, and have real people stand around in a marked chess board, and
then have two people play chess with them. The chessmen/women could 
be cued to yell comments, like Ron's chess pieces do. The only 
problem might be the knights. Do you get real live horses on the 
chess board? Perhaps mechanical ones. There could be live music, 
battle cries, and all the usual fanfare. Now that would be a game, 
I'd look forward to.

Rucha  <rucham78 at yahoo.com>

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I've been trying to think of how to fake up some game with wands. On 
the one tentacle, children would almost certainly use the wands to 
put out each other's eyes. On the other tentacle, wands are so BASIC 
to the Potterverse. Back on the first tentacle, in two weeks I 
haven't been able to think of where to get the magic...

I suppose the wand could have a long wire sticking out the business 
end, which everyone would join in a conspiracy to pretend they didn't 
see, so when the player points the wand at the target, the wire is 
actually touching the target.... making an electric connection.... 
that would light up some gaudy fiber-optics display: "Look, all these 
lights shot out of your wand!".....

catlady at wicca.net (Rita Prince Winston)

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Use Jelly Belly jelly beans for Every Flavored Beans! 
Pin the horn on the Unicorn, Pin the scar on Harry, etc. 
Temporary scar tattoos! You can buy these or "draw" them on! 
Create Famous Wizard Cards with children's names on them... use as 
place-marks or party favors. 
Decorate wizard hats or wands! 
Make a magic elixir with various drinks... see who makes the best 
tasting! 
Sort guests into houses for games (note: you may want to consider not 
sorting kids into Slytherin - kids may get upset or not participate)

Muggle Quidditch 
I've thought quite a bit about how Muggles might adapt Quidditch 
without broom sticks, and I came up with a game which looks like a 
combination of basketball, dodgeball, freeze tag, and capture the 
flag.  This could be a little complex for 9 year olds, but if you 
work step 
by step it could be rather fun. 

I would start off with a basketball type game - one ball, and two 
baskets (buckets, hoops or whatever you'd like to modify it for your 
group) Have a couple of people on each team (the chasers) in charge 
of scoring points by getting the (Quaffle) ball in the basket. 

Then add a dodgeball element to the basketball game. One or two 
people from each team can stand outside the "court" and throw nerf 
balls (Bludgers) at the players. Then you can add beaters, who 
protect the players on their team from the bludgers by catching the 
balls - and throwing it back out of the court. You can make a rule 
that anyone hit by a bludger (except for a beater, of course) must 
"freeze" (like in freeze tag) for a set amount of time (30 
seconds??). (Mom might have to refree and time the freezing). 

Finally add "capture the flag" to your game of 
basketball/dodgeball/freeze tag. Two small balls (or a flag or just 
about anything) which will be the Snitch, are placed on opposite 
sides of the court. The seeker (or maybe seekers) from each team 
wants to retrieve the snitch from the opponents half the court and 
bring it back to their half the court. 

Just like capture the flag, as long as the seekers are on their half 
the court they are fine, But as soon as he crosses over to the "other 
side" of the court he can be captured by keeper for the opposing 
team. If a keeper tags the other teams seeker, the seeker has to sit 
out for a set amount of time (1 minute) and then return back to his 
side of the court.  Like real quidditch, the game ends when one side 
catches a Snitch. 
 
I personally would make the snitch worth less than 150 points. I'd 
hate to see so much pressure to win the game put on one (or two) 
people from each team. But that is a judgment call based on what kind 
of kids are playing. 

This could be pretty complex to play, and to keep score, but it would 
be fun!!! 


~~~~~~~~~~Other ideas~~~~~~~~~
1)Make owls out of foam and used pipe cleaners for the feet...send 
owl messages to each other during the party/event. 

2)Make magic wands out of stiff aquarium tubing stuffed with sparkly 
pipe cleaners, confetti etc and close the ends by stuffing a tiny 
ball of sculpy clay into each end. 

2)Get gummy frogs and painted them with melted chocolate 

3) There are tons of coloring pages and word searches online 

4)On either side of the front door hang posters saying platform 9 and 
platform 10 with the door being platform 9 3/4. 

JulieW428 at yahoo.com (Julie)