The Herbology class rocked, thanks to a wonderful friend who not only brushed up on Professor Sprout, she made her own costume for the party. We held the class in my kids' playroom, where we'd amassed all of our plants, along with a few props, like a mini mandrake made from oven dried clay. The class included several activities:
1. Viewing the mandrake. In Harry Potter, mandrake screams can be deadly—but since this was a teeny, tiny baby mandrake, it was still silent.
2. Taste testing a plant. Gillyweed is a key plot point in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, where it helps him to swim underwater for one of the challenges. We invented a near-twin plant, called "sillyweed," that makes the person act silly. We had them taste our plant (fresh mint from our garden) to determine which one it was...whether it was salty (gillyweed) or minty (sillyweed). No one grew gills, so I think we had some sillyweed on our hands.
3. Planting a magical plant. We labeled small buckets with each guest's name. They poured in a scoop of "dirt" (Jelly Bellys), then planted in a "seed" (jujubes). Lo and behold, before the party was over, they had grown "puffapods," which were lollipop flowers. (My helper snuck back up during dinner to put the flowers—two lollipops held together with pipe cleaners and decked with construction paper petals and leaves—in the pots.)
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