In addition to being super into show jumping story times, freaked out by clowns, and unusually influenced by a cookbook, I really really REALLY love miniatures (ask my daughter about my obsession with dollhouse cakes). So when MGA’S Mini Verse released a “Wizarding World: Harry Potter Make it Mini Potions Class” set, I was beyond thrilled to enter the miniature world of Hogwart’s.
The set, which is intended for ages 8+ and contains over 100+ pieces, retails for around $30. I’ll say it from the jump…the quality of the materials in this set was outstanding. The pieces were good quality plastic, felt substantial, had a lot of details, and were really pleasing to work with. Everything was packed extraordinarily well, with easy instructions printed on the outside of each of the parts containers.
However, there was one set of instructions floating free inside the box. While it did say “Read Me First!” in big letters, I honestly almost missed the piece of paper as I unpacked everything. Good thing I did spot it because it had all the information about resin, glue, and potions. I’m not sure why these instructions weren’t incorporated with the others. It would have been much easier to construct everything that way.
I must also say…this set puts you to WORK! One of the first steps is to lay each individual classroom floor tile using a pot of glue (cleverly disguised as a wooden bucket) and a mini float (which yes, know I am technically holding the wrong way in the photo).
I also had to lay each brick on the walls, using more glue and a mini trowel. Like the floor tiles, the spaces for the bricks were individually numbered, so matching each to its assigned space was easy.
At this point, I was honestly looking for Dobby the house elf to help me out. But I forged on, snapping together the pieces for the two bookcases, work table, and arranging all the little bottles and jars.
When the classroom was finished, it was time for the main event: concocting the mini potion! You had a choice of two: purple or teal. Following the instructions, I gathered all the equipment and ingredient bottles.
To make a potion, you have to pour the powder into the resin inside the cauldron, stir it, use tongs to add some color beads to an empty bottle, funnel the purple resin into said bottle which you then seal and tie a label on. What could possibly go wrong? Ummmmmmm…
Oh, I made a mess. The purple powder went everywhere, I dropped the funnel, everything got all over my fingers, my shirt, my desk. Snape would have absolutely deducted 50 points from Ravenclaw for my potions ineptitude. But when it was finally complete, it was a very pretty potion. I’m not sure if the resin was ultimately supposed to harden, but weeks later, the potion is still sloshing around in the bottle. So caretakers with curious children who like to unbottle things be warned. You may want to keep this particular potion far out of reach.
The amount of labor, glue, resin, and general potential for messiness leads me to suggest that this set for kids ages 10+ (but ok for 8 year-olds with adult assistance). As I mentioned before, the details on the set are exquisite and it’s fun to arrange and re-arrange the miniatures. This would be fantastic for a Harry Potter fan, and a great art kit to boot. 4.75 out of 5!
It’s Harry Potter week at Pop Goes the Page! Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts 1 & 2 will be released this weekend, and there will be launch parties and countdown events galore. I thought it would be helpful to compile all of Pop’s Harry Potter posts and projects, just in case you find something that might come in handy at your wizardly celebration.
And now for more amazing-ness. This 
However, if your magical real estate aspirations need to be on a slightly smaller scale, try this Gothic 
Herbology continues with this little dried herb 
And these dashing, yet simple, 
Another Harry Potter post I dearly love is this 
We’ve also made plenty of dragon and monster projects in the past, from this
Moving on to school supplies, try these simple, but immensely popular, 
If it’s a wand you need, take a look at the custom wands we made at our Harry Potter 
Or, learn some smaller spells. A pair of Slytherin students joined us at our 
And what would Harry Potter be without some treats? Check out the gourmet 
We also tested a couple recipes from the The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook by Dinah Bucholz (Adams Media, 2010). Including Hagrid’s famous rock Cakes!
Those wanting a more academic perspective on Harry Potter (not to mention a look at some goodies from our rare books vaults) should check out the 
We’ve all wanted to jump into books. Who doesn’t, for example, want to go to Diagon Alley and hit the shops? Join Hazel for stories in the Honeycomb? Explore Babilonium with Candy Quackenbush? Or sail the skies with Matt Cruise on the Aurora? Part of my job at the 
But before I get started on all the details, I’d like to introduce our event collaborator, 
Bedtime Math brought 3 fantastic activities to the event: Spy Training, Beach Ball Party, and Glow-in-the-Dark Geometry. Here’s Spy Training, which was all about codes and ciphers…
And here’s Beach Ball Party, which involved counting, stacking, and chasing beach balls determined to make a break for it.
It also involved Ellen Williams (who you last spotted being pelted with marshmallows in 
Some kids decided to use the original plastic connectors that came with the bracelets to make unique geometric creations. Here’s one of my favorites. A series of loops that, when spun, becomes a sphere!
The mines were stocked with an assortment of wooden numbers. I used 4″ numbers I found online at Woodcrafter. If you’d like a cheaper option, I recommend printing paper numbers on card stock.
The mines were staffed by high school volunteers from the Arts Council, who were suitably decked out in miner helmets.
Elsewhere in Digitopolis was the “Fibonacci Forest,” hosted by the 
The Watershed also did a cool fractal tree project. It involved a half-sheet of green paper, brown markers, and rulers (here are the 
We decorated the finished fractal trees with bird and leaf stamps, but you can also just use markers or color pencils.
And speaking of wildlife, how about some zebra math? We were delighted to be joined by Princeton University Professor 
Some researchers believe that zebra stripes exist to confuse predators. So Dan and his constituents developed “Dazzle Confusion,” an iPad game in which kids “become the lion” and tried to tap black, white, or striped moving targets to determine which one is most difficult to hit.
At the end of the game, the program tabulated the kids’ results and displayed them on a large screen. As the event progressed, the results continued to accrue. This lead to conversations about data collection, measurement, central tendencies, and averages.
It’s worth noting that although there was much variation on kids’ “strikes” on the targets, there was a strong trend (p < .08) showing that the striped targets were hardest to hit! How’s that for some real world math?
Here’s a screen shot of the game, which was created by sophmore Lucy Lin. If you’d like to test drive the game yourself, here’s the 
The game was cool, but even cooler was the fact that there was another laptop running tandem to the gaming laptops that showed all the algorithms behind the Scratch program. And volunteers were on hand to answer any and all questions about computing. They also had a couple of encryption puzzles for kids to crack.
For those who prefer their math undiluted, the Princeton University Mathematics Club came out en force to host a “Playful Problems” table. Here, kids found a plethora of logic puzzles, word problems, visual puzzles, calculator tricks, the works!
There were 12 different activities for children ages 4-10. The activities ranged from easy to moderately difficult. Here’s an example of our simplest puzzle, which was created by Casandra Monroe (whom you first met 
Below is a list of what we offered at the event table. In addition to using Google to find some of these puzzles, Math Wizardry for Kids (Barron’s, 1995) and How to be a Math Genius (DK Children, 2012) were terrific resources.
By the way, did you notice the cute play cart parked in the upper right corner of the above image? That’s one of our “Trio of Treats.”
I always try to include something for the littlest patrons, so I bought 3 adorable food carts and stocked them with math play sets. The food carts are by KidKraft (Sweet & Sunny Lemonade Stand) and the play sets are by Learning Resources. We used Piece-A-Pizza Fractions, Number Pops, and Count ‘Em Up Popcorn.
One of the most popular event tables, however, was “Visit the 4th Dimension.” It was hosted by 
At the event table, kids learned about the different dimensions (1st is a line, 2nd is a square, 3rd is a cube, 4th is a tesseract). ScienceSeeds brought their 3D printers to the event and made models. You can see a tesseract in progress below. Awesome.
Kids could also make 3D models of their own using drinking straws and plastic connectors. You can buy the plastic connectors online (from Strawbees). However, scienceSeeds has a die cut machine and was able to purchase the die cuts (from Accucut) and make their own connectors from plastic sheets (from Grafix).
Like I said, their table was hopping – they estimate they went through at least 3,500 straws!
The thing I liked most about the project is that there was no limit to the shape, size, or intended use of the 3D models.
