Printable magic trick cards

⚫ Pepper Scatter

Apprentice · 2 minutes · ages 5 to 9

You need: bowl, water, pepper, dish soap

1. Fill the bowl with the water and shake the pepper all over the top.
2. Ask your friend to touch the middle of the water with one finger.
3. Nothing happens.
4. Touch the middle with the finger that has the dish soap on it.

…and 1 more on peabody.kids/magic/pepper-and-soap-trick

Say: “Pepper, pepper, run away! There's a magician here today! Go on. Try it yourself first. It won't listen to you.”

➡️ The Arrow Flip

Apprentice · 2 minutes · ages 5 to 9

You need: glass, water, paper, marker

1. Draw a big fat arrow on the paper with the marker, pointing right.
2. Stand it up against something, and put the empty the glass in front of it.
3. Point out that the arrow still points right.
4. Pour the water in until it's higher than the arrow.

…and 2 more on peabody.kids/magic/arrow-flip-trick

Say: “Arrows are very easily confused. This one has had a long day. Watch me turn it round without touching it. Flip-flop!”

🫗 The Water Vanish

Apprentice · 2 minutes · ages 5 to 10

You need: glass, water, coin, saucer

1. Put the coin on the table and stand the empty the glass on top of it.
2. Ask everyone to crouch down and look through the side.
3. Fill the glass with the water, right to the top.
4. Lay the saucer over the mouth of the glass like a little lid.

…and 2 more on peabody.kids/magic/disappearing-coin-water-trick

Say: “This is invisibility water. I keep it in a glass because it's the only thing that can hold it. Anything underneath disappears. Watch the coin.”

🫧 The Glowing Potion

Apprentice · 2 minutes · ages 6 to 11

You need: glass, water, tonic water, UV light

1. Pour the water into one glass and the tonic water into the other.
2. Put them side by side and ask which one looks magic.
3. Ask a grown-up to turn the lights off or pull the curtains.
4. A grown-up shines the UV light on both glasses, pointing it down at the table.

…and 1 more on peabody.kids/magic/glowing-water-trick

Say: “One of these is swamp water from a wizard's garden. The other came out of the tap. I can't tell them apart either, so let's ask the light.”

🪄 Secret Message Ink

Apprentice · 10 minutes · ages 5 to 10

You need: white paper, baking soda, water, cotton swab, grape juice, paintbrush

1. Mix the baking soda and the water in a cup, about the same amount of each.
2. Write your message on the white paper with the cotton swab dipped in the mix.
3. Leave it flat until it's completely dry.
4. Hold it up and say it's a letter from a wizard, written in invisible ink.

…and 2 more on peabody.kids/magic/invisible-ink-for-kids

Say: “This came through the letterbox this morning with no stamp on it. It's blank, which is how ghosts write. Luckily I've got the potion that reads ghost handwriting.”

🥛 The Upside-Down Water Card

Apprentice · 5 minutes · ages 6 to 11

You need: glass, water, index card

1. Fill the glass right up to the top with the water.
2. Lay the index card flat over the top and press it down.
3. Hold the index card in place and turn the glass upside down over a tray.
4. Take your hand away.

Say: “Water falls down. Everybody knows that. It's one of the few things you can really count on. Except, as it turns out, when I ask it not to.”

🎈 The Balloon Static Wand

Apprentice · 5 minutes · ages 5 to 10

You need: balloon, paper strip

1. Ask a grown-up to blow the balloon up and tie it.
2. Tear six paper strip into little pieces and scatter them on the table.
3. Rub the balloon on your hair, hard, for about ten seconds.
4. Hold the balloon just above the pieces and lift it slowly.

Say: “This is a wand. I know it doesn't look like one. Wands come in all sorts these days. Watch what happens when I tell these bits of paper to stand up.”

🌈 The Colour-Changing Potion

Conjurer · 10 minutes · ages 6 to 11

You need: grape juice, baking soda, glass, water

1. Stir a spoon of the baking soda into the empty two glasses before anyone is watching.
2. Mix the grape juice with a little the water in the other two glasses and show it round.
3. Say the magic word and pour the purple potion into the prepared two glasses.
4. Hold it up.

Say: “Purple. We're all agreed it's purple? Good, because in about four seconds it won't be, and I want witnesses.”

🥚 The Obedient Egg

Apprentice · 5 minutes · ages 6 to 11

You need: egg, glass, water, salt

1. Fill the glass with the water and lower the egg in.
2. Order the egg to rise.
3. Stir several big spoons of the salt into the water, round and round.
4. Ask the egg again.

Say: “Eggs are stubborn. This one and I have an arrangement. Rise. ...Rise. Hmm. He's new. Let me have a word with the water instead.”

📎 The Floating Paperclip

Apprentice · 5 minutes · ages 6 to 11

You need: paperclips, bowl, water, dish soap

1. Fill the bowl with the water and let it go completely still.
2. Bend one two paperclips into a little cradle to lower the other one with.
3. Lay the second two paperclips flat on the surface and slide the cradle away.
4. Dip one finger in the dish soap and touch the edge of the water.

Say: “Metal sinks. This is not a trick metal paperclip, you can check it, and it is definitely going to sink. Unless I ask the water very politely to help.”