After dinner in the Great Hall, we told the students they would have to immediately serve a detention degnoming the gardens for being late to the start of term. They would serve their detention with Mrs. Sprout near the Quidditch Pitch (still under construction). Basically, it was a bean bag hunt and toss game that scored house points. Students had to find gnomes hiding throughout the grounds (our backyard). Then, they had to tag them and toss them over the fence off grounds.
Each student had to find one of 8 gnome hidden throughout the back yard. Since we had about two students in each house, everyone could find a gnome to toss. One gnome was slightly larger than the rest, and another somehow ended up smaller. Those that found the Largest and Smallest gnomes received 25 house points.
Once they had a gnome in hand, they had to tag its leg with a house color scrunchy for identificaation. To toss it, they had to hold the gnome with either a leg or arm in each hand. (Since it was wet and muddy out, we made a last minute decision to bag them to keep them clean while tossing.)
While holding their gnome properly, students had to spin around 3 times and toss it over the fence barrier into a clearing with three different sized colored hoops just outside the Hogwart's grounds. We gave bonus house points for making it in a hoop as follows:
Orange (small, farthest away) = 150 pts
Green (medium, middle) = 100 pts
Pink (Largest, closest) = 50 pts
And the person who threw their gnome the farthest without landing in a hoop also received 10 pts.
The hoops were various sized neon hula-hoops from the dollar store. To make the game a little easier, the larger green and pink hoops were enlarged to two hoops joined together into one larger hoop. I simply removed the staples and label that hold them together and poured out the beads inside to avoid a mess. (Conveniently they tear down for easier storage.)
We had wanted to do the game tournament style, where houses would compete in multiple rounds throwing three gnomes each, but we feared it would be too cold/wet to stay outside that long. So, we opted for a quicker game where each student only threw one gnome. If we had time or weather had permitted, we also had a notice board challenge planned to attend Fred and Georges Gnome Tossing Tournament. Here students would compete individually on various skills. It will definitely be on the list for next years games.
All in all, it was a lot of fun. Slytherin and Hufflepuff earned the most house points during the event.
Next, I plan to share a creepy game held just after the De-gnoming. Stay tuned!...if you want to. :)
UPDATE: Now you can have gnomes of your very own from my Etsy store.
