Super easy magic tricks kids can do! Fun tricks you can play right away
We’re introducing simple magic tricks that even preschoolers and early elementary school kids can do, complete with videos and explanations of how they work!
Magic tricks are a playtime full of delightful mysteries for children.
After watching a magic show, many kids probably think, “I want to amaze everyone too!”
In this article, we’ve gathered tricks that require no practice once you make the props, as well as tricks you can likely master in a day.
If your child is interested in magic, encourage them to give it a try!
Once they’ve got it down, have them perform in front of family and friends.
Getting used to performing in front of others is part of the practice too!
Super Easy Magic Tricks Kids Can Do! Fun Tricks You Can Play Right Away (1–10)
The magic that makes a drawing’s face stretch
It’s a magic trick where you show a sheet with an illustration from the front and, as you place your hand over the face and pull upward, you open your hand to reveal the face stretched upward.
It looks funny because the body hasn’t changed, yet only the face has been pulled into a distorted, elongated shape.
The method is very simple: you secretly hide an illustration of the stretched face in the hand you use to cover the original, and when you cover it, you insert that hidden piece into a slit at the boundary between the face and the body, making the stretched-face illustration appear.
Be mindful of displaying it in a way that doesn’t reveal the slit, and make sure to carefully control the length of the face.
A magic trick where the arrow’s direction switches
It’s a magic trick where you hold a small board with arrows drawn on it and rotate it with your fingers; when you change the angle, arrows that should be pointing in different directions all appear to line up.
Since arrows that should differ by as much as 90 degrees end up pointing the same way, it feels like there must be some elaborate gimmick.
In fact, there’s no gimmick at all—the key is how you hold the board.
By changing whether you support a face or a corner, you create the illusion that the arrows are aligned in the same direction.
As long as you don’t mix up each arrow’s orientation and the holding position, anyone can perform this simple trick.
Rubber Band Floating Magic
A curious magic trick that makes a rubber band look like it’s floating in midair.
The key is to prepare a regular rubber band and a thin, colorless transparent one.
In fact, a transparent rubber band—almost invisible to the audience—is looped around your left hand.
You place the colored rubber band on top of it and pull them up together, creating the illusion that it’s floating.
The mechanism is very simple, so whether it looks like a high-level trick depends on your handling and performance.
Practice your hand movements so it doesn’t look like you’re obviously pinching two bands together!
A magic trick where the contents of a plastic bottle are switched
It’s a magic trick where you hold two plastic bottles—one with cola and one with water—and keep shaking them at the same time, and the colors inside slowly swap.
The fact that the change happens gradually rather than all at once is what draws the audience in.
The liquid that looked like cola is actually mouthwash, and the color change works by dropping chlorine (bleach powder/tablets) hidden in the cap into it to mix.
For the water bottle, black paint is placed in the cap so that shaking gradually tints the whole liquid dark.
It’s also worth noting how the proportions affect how closely the colors match—let’s think about ways to make it look even more mysterious.
Magic where a ball placed in a box disappears
It’s a magic trick where you put a ball into a box through a hole in the lid, but when you open the lid, the ball that should be inside has vanished.
A key point is that you first open the lid to show the inside of the box, creating a sense of mystery by making it look like there’s no gimmick.
The crucial element is the mechanism at the bottom of the box: it’s actually constructed so that an independent panel is hooked in place.
When you insert the ball, you slide this panel to let the ball drop outside the box.
Pay close attention to finger movements that allow you to return the bottom to its original position, and to a dropping technique that doesn’t reveal the ball has been released.
Origami magic where the cut-out pattern changes
The center of an origami sheet you supposedly cut into a square turns into a heart! This magic trick requires preparation.
Prepare two sheets of origami paper and make three vertical creases on each.
On one sheet, pre-cut the center into any shape you like—such as a heart or a star.
Then, with the cut sheet on top, glue the edges of the two sheets together, and you’re ready.
When cutting in front of your audience, be careful not to let the scissors reach the overlapped sheet, and when you open it, fling it wide quickly so the gimmick isn’t visible.
Origami that moves on its own magic
Origami that starts moving on its own—mysterious, right? But this magic trick is just about folding! Because the inner sections are folded to gradually expand once your fingers stop holding them down, if you leave it on a table for a while, it looks as if it’s moving by itself.
If there were ever a trick with no gimmicks, this is it! The key is to follow the steps and fold precisely.
Practice both the folding method and the hand movements that sell the illusion, then show it off to your friends!