The Ultimate Hogwarts Dinner Event | How To Create A Charms Class

Last updated on 25 September 2021

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Welcome to the Charms edition of the Ultimate Hogwarts Dinner Event series!

Recently I was part of a team who turned our church into Hogwarts for a youth event. We decked out the entire building in Harry Potter magic, and for 2 hours the kids were students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In this series I’m sharing how we set up each classroom, and the activities we held in them. Be sure to check out the rest of the series by clicking the links at the end of this post.

“Professor Flitwick called them one by one into his class to see if they could make a pineapple dance across the desk.” – Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

No dancing pineapples in our set up, unfortunately (maybe next time?) but we did have the youth casting a Forgetfulness Charm, or the Memory Charm as it’s also called, on each other.

Charms class decor

Our Charms classroom was set up down the middle of our Great Hall. Using staging we created a long platform (alternatively you could use wooden pallets or just make a runner down along the floor), and on the top placed a dark blue run of fabric. On the fabric were painted silver stars at each end, and gold crescent moons towards the centre. These were used as placements for where the kids had to stand at each level. In terms of decor for Charms class, that’s all we had or needed. The rest of the room was set up as the Great Hall, so it still gave it that magical feel.

If you were to replicate this in any way, take a look at the other charms that the kids in Harry Potter learn about with Professor Flitwick and see what you can come up, in terms of decor. You might just have a classroom -like setting with a blackboard, and some floating feathers perhaps. Keep it simple.

Charms class activity

For the Charms activity, the kids had to pair off, and each member of the pair stood at either end of the platform, on the stars, holding loaded ping-pong ball guns. The ping-pong ball represented the charm, and the first opponent to hit the other with the ball, won. Professor Flitwick then yells out Stage 1, Stage 2, and so on, and with each stage the kids move one moon closer to the centre to try and hit from there. They must stay on the runner at all times. They got a grade depending on how good their shots were, even if they didn’t ‘win’ the match.

And that was Charms class! There are plenty more activities you could do in terms of Charm-like things, especially if you had longer than the 10 minutes that each ‘class’ had. Some quick fire ideas for Charms class to get you going:

Aguamenti – water gun activity
Alohomora – unlocking things
Expecto Patronum – make their own Patronus
Wingardium Leviosa – some sort of engineering project to make something move on its own
Tarantallegra – a dance off

Charms Tag Game

We didn’t play this, but another idea is to have multiple spells in play, with rules that go with each one, perhaps in a game of tag. If there were two teams with wands, then any Charm could be broken with a correct counter charm by the member of the same team. For wands, instead of actual wands or chopsticks (pointy ends and running around don’t go hand in hand), perhaps something like capture the flag, with coloured ribbon, or hats or something soft that could be taken off but wouldn’t cause damage if you fell over.

The game might go as such: Big game of tag; if someone tagged and said Expelliarmus then the recipient would have to drop their hat/ribbon in place, go to the other side of the room and then come back to retrieve it (time penalty). Engorgio and that person would have to pretend to swell up and join together with another team member, making it easier for the opposing team to get them. Impedimenta and they’d have to fall to the ground for 5 seconds. Obscuro could mean the have to shut their eyes for 10 seconds before continuing. Locomotor Mortis (or Petrificus Totalus) and they’d had to remain still with locked legs. And so on and so forth.

Haven’t thought about the finer details, but there’s something to get you started.

Check out the rest of the series:

Massive shout out to our fearless leader in this epic endeavour, and the fantastic team who put it all together. I helped where I could, but it’s you guys who made the whole night come together!