Messed up on a test at school? Misplaced your toad? Stole your father’s flying car? Brace yourself – you might be getting a Howler in the mail.

You’ll need:

• An 8.5″ x 11″ piece of red poster board (or red card stock)
• Extra red poster board (or red card stock) for pop-up elements
• A few pieces of white card stock
• Markers, pens, and/or color pencils for writing and decorating
• Scissors and tape for construction
• Optional (but fun!): sparkle stems, foil star stickers, and bits of red mirror board

While there are templates and patterns for the Howlers you see in the Harry Potter movies, some of them can get a little complicated. The folks who staffed the Howler table at our Harry Potter event wanted something kids could do with minimal instruction and assistance. As it turned out, kids of all ages loved making these simple pop-up cards. The table was hopping for 5 hours!

Our Howler is an 8.5″ x 11″ piece of red poster board (or card stock) folded in half. We offered 4 pop-up elements for the interior of the card: 1) Basic accordion fold; 2) Clustered accordion fold; 3) Spiral; and 4) Zigzag accordion fold.

To make the basic accordion fold, take a strip of paper and fold it back and forth until it resembles a stair case. Attach one end to the card with tape. We cut a number of different size strips and let kids pick and fold the ones they wanted. We also had rectangular pieces available in case kids wanted to cut and fold a cluster of accordion folds.

To make a spiral, cut into a circle of poster board (or card stock), circling inwards until you reach the center. Attach one end to the card with tape. We prepared large and small circles in advance, and let kids pick and cut their own spirals.

To make a zigzag accordion fold, cut a zigzag into a strip of paper, and then fold along the straight points of the zigzag, like so:

We had sparkle stems, foil star stickers, and little bits of red mirror board available to decorate the cards (the idea was to make it look as explosive as possible, so lots of red and gold)!  Finally, write magical crimes and consequences on pieces of white card stock and attach them to the card or pop-up elements. Feel free to add illustrations as well (like Marissa’s fantastic broomstick in the image below? And did you notice the little exclamation marks popping up on accordion folds?).

Tsk tsk tsk Beatrix. You really should be more responsible with your broom.