How to Make a Harry Potter Magic Wand
Last year I got the awesome experience to, once again, teach several periods of Reading Enrichment at my middle school.
I love teaching reading almost as much as I love teaching art….and this magic wand project let me combine both subjects!
One of the books that we read together as a class was Harry Potter so after our daily fluency drills, comprehension work, and phonemic awareness practice we spent some time creating our own magic wands!
It was so much fun.
And, although we made our wands over a series of class periods this is a project that could easily done in an evening or during a party.
To make these wands you will need:
*Yard Balloon Sticks. (I bought mine at the Dollar Store)
*Hot Glue Gun and Hot Glue Sticks
*Styrofoam balls. (I also bought these at the Dollar Store)
*Acrylic Paint and Brushes
Here’s how we made ours:
- We cut each yard balloon stick in half.
- Then we stuck a styrofoam ball on the the end of each of the yard sticks.
3. Now it was time for the glue!!!!
We used a hot glue gun to cover the styrofoam ball with glue. Next, we drizzled glue down the stick to create texture for our wands.
*NOTE: For the drizzle…. we placed our sticks into the balloon holders that came in the yard stick package…that way students could drizzle the hot glue without risk of burning their fingers.
4. After the hot glue hardened and cooled we finally got to paint! We used acrylic craft paint. I had everyone begin by painting their entire wands brown.
5. When the base coat of brown was dry we then went back with smaller brushes and added some black, gold, green, and purple highlights to give our wands some character.
When we finished we each decided what was at the core of our wand (a phoenix feather, the heartstring from a dragon, unicorn hair, etc.) and what spell is its speciality.
Oh….and….of course we said, “The wand chooses the wizard Harry,” about 8.5 thousand times.
I would do this project again in a heart beat.
I loved it and the kids loved it.
It really was magic.
In fact, I loved this project so much that I brought my wand with me to London last summer to take these pictures of it right next to Platform 9 and 3/4.
Yes, I am that big of a nerd.
But, I have no regrets.
In fact, it was a lot easier to bring the wand with me than the entire Harry Potter Quilt that I made the year before and lugged all over Europe in a backpack!
Although…honestly…I don’t regret taking the quilt either! 🙂
I’m a nerd for Harry Potter, and quilting, and craft projects, and travel, and pictures…I can’t help it!
And, if you are like me, you will enjoy making these Harry Potter Wands as well.
Happy crafting!
-liZ
