Secrets of the Wand – A Magical Magicians Week: Houdini Day

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Welcome to our “Secrets of the Wand – A Magical Magicians Week” – an at home week filled with days of relaxed learning and fun activities all themed to oh-so-mesmerizing magicians!!! While we definitely carved out some time to become master magicians, this week was more focused on the history of magic and some famous magicians! And in addition to learning all about the history of magic and about some groundbreaking magicians, we also conjured up some crafts and created our own magical stories!

One cannot have a magician week without dedicating some time to one of the most famous magicians of the modern age, Harry Houdini! For our fourth day, we learned all about this master illusionist and escape artist! Read on to check out a fun filled day of learning, reading, crafts, and activities all themed to the famous Harry Houdini!!

A TYPICAL DAY

All kids are different and you can definitely vary your day with whatever works for you 🙂 Our relaxed & learning fun day kicks off with an introduction to the day’s theme. Then, we move onto videos and themed activities (reading, writing – or story telling – time, crafts, food crafts/snacks, and games or experiments). Feel free to pick and choose whatever works for you 🙂

INTRO

You have likely heard of the amazing escapist, Harry Houdini in some way shape or form! For this day, we learned all about this magician and his famous acts!

If you aren’t familiar with harry Houdini, these sites are great introductions with interesting facts, images, and related content! They’re perfect for providing a brief intro for your little ones (or to gather up some knowledge as well!)!

Harry Houdini by Ducksters
Harry Houdini facts for kids by Kiddle

WHAT TO WATCH

We find that mixing in a short video themed to our day is a great way to add some learning fun! We try to pick informative videos OR mix in a cartoon favorite (where they don’t even realize they’re learning). Below are some of the videos we picked from for the day:

Harry Houdini For Kids by Bedtime History (9m)
Xavier Riddle | Training With Harry Houdini | PBS KIDS by PBS Kids (3m)
Who Was Show S1E8
Harry Houdini: Unlocking the Mystery by History (1.5hr) Note: this one is a full documentary and isn’t specifically for kids, so you may want to watch it and check for any specific areas you’d want to share with little ones.

FOOD CRAFTS / SNACKS

Magician's Week - Houdini Day - Snack of the Day

What’s more fun than taking a break and having a simple snack??? Including the snack in your theme of the day! We find that our kiddos are more than happy to eat the snacks they create especially when they can arrange them into fun shapes and scenes!

In honor of Houdini’s favorite meals (according to How to eat like a (Handcuff) King by Wild About Houdini and Harry Houdini’s Favorite Dinner Was A Lavish Meal by Tasting Table), we snacked on some hard boiled eggs & cherries!

READING

Magician's Week - Houdini Day - Books of the Day

It’s no secret that reading is an important part of learning, which is why we pick out a handful of books that are fun and filled with some learning tidbits. For our older ones, we have them fill out some worksheets (or let them create some of their own comics) to describe what they read and/or learned! These are a few we picked from for the day:

Marvelous Magicians by Lydia Corry
Who is Harry Houdini by Tui Sutherland

WRITING & WRITING PROMPTS

Magician's Week - Houdini Day - Writing Prompt

Just like reading, writing is a great way to keep kids learning by both encouraging their creativity and thought process as well as helping them practice their motor skills and penmanship.

If you’ve got a little one, have them trace words related to the theme: MAGIC, MAGICIANS, ILLUSION, ESCAPIST, HARRY HOUDINI

If you’ve got older children, have them write a sentence or two up to a page or two (depending on their age). Encourage them to be creative AND give reasons for why they made certain choices. This was our writing prompt of the day (and we offered up some examples as well) but definitely pick something your kiddo might be interested in writing about!

Harry Houdini had an ‘Escape Challenge’ Act where he invited people to create something to hold him. If you could design something to challenge a magician to get out of, what would it be?
If you could travel back in time to interview Harry Houdini, what would you ask?

CREATE & CRAFT

Magician's Week - Houdini Day - Craft of the Day

If you’ve got a crafty little one, a simple craft is a great way to keep them interested in the topic. While their creative juices are flowing, you can also chat about what they’ve learned so far or ask them what else they’re excited about learning! Below are some of the crafts we looked at:

How to Make a Cape in 20 Minutes (Easy DIY Tutorial) by Doodle Craft
How to a Make Top Hat (PDF, Template & Download) by Magicians Masterclass
DIY Handcuffs: Become the handcuff king! There are several tutorials on creating some string or paper handcuffs for playing around (you could also have a pair from the Dollar Tree on hand if the craft doesn’t go well). After the handcuffs are created, see if you can get out of them!

STEM & STEAM ACTIVITIES

Magician's Week - Intro Day - STEM Activity of the Day

Magician's Week - Houdini Day - STEM Activity of the Day

While crafting and writing get their creativity and imagination flowing, we also like to add in an activity that gets them thinking along the lines of science, technology, engineering, or math! These engaging activities or experiments are a great way to keep them learning!

For our team portion of the day for this week, we let our kiddos pick one or two experiments in the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC Science Magic Kit. Any trick they wanted to ‘perfect’, they could add into their end of week magic show!

THANK YOU!!!

Thank you for checking out our at home learning fun article! If you enjoyed this post, please let us know what you think in the comments below and/or follow us on Pinterest

Also, if you haven’t already, check out some of our other Magic Ideas days as well as our DIY At Home Camps!

Happy Learning!