Easy Magic Acts for Kids
Magic tricks can get your kids involved in an extracurricular activity. Explain to your kids that they need to start off simple and to keep practicing to get the tricks just right. Your child can learn several tricks, including ones that involve coins, cards and other household objects.
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Card Tricks
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Card tricks can be the basis of any magician's repertoire. Show your child different shuffling techniques before she starts any of the tricks. An example of a simple card trick is to guess which card a person picked out of the deck. Look at the bottom of your shuffled deck of cards and memorize the card that's at the bottom. For example, if it's a queen of hearts, memorize that card. Ask an audience member to pick a card and place it on top of the deck. Then ask the audience member to cut the deck. Go through the cards face up and pick the card immediately left of the card that was originally at the bottom of the deck (in this case, to the left of the queen of hearts). This will be the audience member's card.
Coin Tricks
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For smaller kids, teach them a trick that is more of a riddle. Have a child form fists with his hands over two coins: a quarter in one hand and a penny in the other hand. Then have him go around holding the coins in his fists and say the line "I have two coins in my hands which total 26 cents. One is not a penny. What are the two coins I'm holding in my hand?"
Then have your kid move up to vanishing coin tricks which require more distraction. Take a small piece of thin foil, make an impression of a quarter and cut it out so it resembles the coin. For the trick, place a piece of paper over the foil quarter and take the paper off so the audience can see the fake quarter. Then place the paper over the foil quarter again and crumple it up, making it disappear.
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The Banana Trick
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Teach your child the sliced banana trick. Take a clean needle and poke it through one side of the peel and slowly move it back and forth to slice the banana inside the peel. Pull the needle out and poke it through the peel again, about a half inch down until you've gone down the entire banana. Then in front of the audience, take a piece of string or fishing wire and pretend to cut the banana with it. Then open the banana to reveal the slices inside.
The Dollar Bill Trick
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Show your child how to fold a dollar bill that begins right side up but ends upside down once it's opened again. Begin with a dollar bill and show it to the audience face-up. Fold the bill in half from your right to left, lengthwise so the spectators see the half of the back of the bill. Fold the bill in half again, widthwise, toward you, so that it's in quarters. Add some drama by flicking the dollar bill with your finger, creating the illusion that this act turns the bill upside down. Flip the front flap of the bill up, away from you, so that it's now in half again. Open the bill again, away from you from left to right to reveal that the dollar bill has flipped upside down.
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References
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