Easy magic tricks for kids: the Apprentice level

About these tricks

Every trick on this page works the first try. That is the promise of the Apprentice level, and it is checked in the code: an Apprentice trick is learned in ten minutes or less and starts no later than 2nd grade. Most take under five minutes, so a child can learn one and perform it before bed.

Easy does not mean small. The Rubber Pencil and Pepper Scatter get a gasp every time, because the audience has never seen them. Start here, perform three of them for somebody, and the Conjurer level will feel like the next step rather than a jump.

They come off 6 shelves of the shop, most from The Everyday Shelf (11) and The Potion Lab (9). What you need most often: paper (11), kitchen things (10), cards (8), and 7 tricks need nothing at all. 4 tricks have a step a grown-up does (something hot or a bright light), and 9 tricks carry the choking note for brothers and sisters under 4. The quickest to learn is The Rubber Pencil (1 minute); the longest is Secret Message Ink (10 minutes).