D.A.D.A.

aka: Defense Against the Dark Arts

I just realized how far behind I am with posts!  I owe you blog readers many more Harry Potter class posts, like as in at least 3 or 4 more.  If you want to refresh yourself with my former class posts, here are the links the HP 101, Care of Magical Creatures, and Muggle Studies.  Enjoy.  And if HP is not your cup of Earl Grey tea, then you have my permission to just ignore this post.  That's right. 

Well here goes... This was a pretty interesting class to host, one that I think the kiddos were excited to have.  They all seemed to be itching at this point to pretend to cast Potter spells and a few of my Slytherin kids had some "unforgivable curses" they needed to get out of their systems.  I nearly dressed up as Delores Umbridge just for the fear factor, but she really scares me too and I don't have any cat sweaters, so that didn't seem to be a great plan. 

At this point, my students were totally into doing trivia for house points, so I didn't disappoint.  We spent a fourth of the class doing that.  After we chatted about what Defense Against the Dark Arts is about, I pulled out some Cornish Pixies for the class to admire.  Remember in book two when Prof. Lockhart brought out some pixies?  Well, mine were supposed to look like this cool picture (via Panka with Love).  Needless to say, mine turned out NOTHING like this.  I guess my paint was old or something.  Live and learn.  But hey, wouldn't this have been cool if it had worked?!?  The kids humored me and my jar had at least a tiny bit of glow. 

The next thing we did was work on spell casting for ridding a closet of a boggart.  This took A LOT of imagination and I had some really funny kids in my class, so this was fun.  First I asked them (one kid at a time) what we could expect to fly out of the closet.  Then we all had to laugh as loud as we could to back that kid up as he turned the boggart into something silly.  Afterward, we talked about Harry's first encounter with a boggart and I gave out some protective chocolates - just in case of dementor attacks, of course. 

And speaking of, the last thing we did in class was arm ourselves against dementors by learning to conjure up a  Patronus. Well, actually, we made some Patronus wands.  I brought in a ton of pipe cleaners and plastic straws for the kids to make bubble wands in the shape their Patronus would take.  (My good friend Kate actually came up with this idea - thanks Kate!)  I had some cookie cutters in different shapes for the kids to bend their pipe cleaners around, just in case they needed some extra creative help.  I made a stag for my Patronus, but now I'm wishing I had used the rubber duck...

Anyway, the key to success with the wands here is to have a shallow and wide enough dish to have them test out their bubble wands.  Also, and this is more a common sense thing, but you'd be surprised how many kids didn't get this - make sure that the shape is a closed circuit!  It doesn't have to be a circle shape, but it does have to meet end to end for this puppy to work.  And really, who doesn't have fun blowing bubbles?!?

Up next, I predict it will be... Divination class!

Muggle Studies

I'm really behind on my Harry Potter class posts.  Sorry about that!  Life just seems to keep getting in my way.  If I could just add an extra hour onto my day, like say sometime AFTER the boys were in bed...

Anyway, let's talk Muggles!

I love J.K. Rowling's sense of humor.  I think I'd love walking around in her brain for a day or two.  One of her genius ideas in the Harry Potter series was distinguishing between Wizards and Muggles.  A Muggle is a person who lacks any magical ability and was not born into the magical world.  (Different from a "Squib," which is a person with one or more magical parents who has zero magical abilities...)  Muggles have no magic in their bloodline and usually are ignorant of the magical world in general.  Rowling has the Hogwarts students learn about these non-magical people so the students can familiarize themselves with their odd habits and be in a better position to protect the innocent Muggles from evil wizards. 

The fun part about teaching this class is really based in the power of imagination.  I brought in a whole slew of "Muggle artifacts," everything from a lighter to a remote control, and talked to the kids (in my most amazed voice) about what these items are used for and what the equivalent magic would be.  For instance, a flashlight provides light and a wizard would just use the spell "lumos."  Keys unlock things, just as a wizard could use the unlocking charm "alohomora."  I had a few bonus items like binoculars vs. omnioculars, and I gave out house points when my students knew the magical equivalent. It was a great way to get their creative juices flowing.


The main part of the class was used in making Muggle Studies notebooks. (Thanks for the idea, mom!)  I made up some little construction paper notebooks for the kiddos to make magazine collages in, with things like "Silly Things Muggles Wear" and "Muggle Inventions" and "Funny Muggle Words."  The kids chopped up old magazines looking for outrageous things Muggles do.  It was great having the kids share their findings afterwards.  We had a lot of laughs (at our own expense)!

Stay tuned for Defense against the Dark Arts!

 

Care of Magical Creatures

I'm back with another week of Harry Potter lessons!  (This is week two of my after-school class for 3rd through 5th graders... see week one here.)

The next class I taught was Care of Magical Creatures.  I had a lot of fun with this because I got to make a whole slew of crazy props. And who doesn't love unicorns, hippogriffs, owls, phoenixes and such?!?  I had to have a pair of Luna Lovegood earrings to ward off nargles, of course.  (They were super easy to make.  I just used polymer clay and followed these instructions on Instructables.  I LOVE that site.)  Anyway, the kids thought these were awesome. 

Well, speaking of nargles, another good way to fend off these  pesky little thieves is to eat a gooey flobberworm.  Did you know that?  Flobberworms can look an awful lot like gummy worms.  Funny, the kids didn't seem to mind a dose of wormage.  They rather enjoyed it, I'd say. (Just put them in a fancy jar and you can call them whatever you'd like!)

I read to them about several different magical creatures out of a very special book, too.  You can't teach Care of Magical Creatures without owning a copy of The Monster Book of Monsters.  It just isn't done.  Ask Hagrid.  So, Tim and I created our own version. 

I had some raggedy old minks from a tag sale that I kept for freaky Halloween props - they were a taxidermy dream with little faces and legs... super creepy.  Anyway, I had Tim cut them open and glue them onto an old book cover. (I was incapable of doing this on my own.  At one point, Tim mistakenly broke a leg off and the snap-crackle-pop sent me into convulsions.  I literally held back puke.) Tim also chopped off the tails of the minks and we used them as big fuzzy eyebrows.  The eyes themselves are made from yellow polymer clay and those green glass bead things that people use in floral arrangements.  They catch the light in a fun way.  And the teeth and tongue are also polymer clay, baked and then glued into the book.  I think the book turned out so great.  I love how the mink feet randomly hang down around the mouth.  I also added ribbon bookmarks to the pages and glued in some magical creature information to make the whole thing look official. 

In class, we talked a lot about the importance of magical creatures and what the purpose in studying them is, which I really feel translates into "respect for animals."  It's not that I've turned my class into an ethics class, but it's nice when fantasy can teach real life lessons.  I was really quite pleased with my kiddos that they had so much to say about treating animals respectfully.  The Harry Potter scene with Draco and the hippogriff was referenced, even. 

I had another cute little pet to teach my kiddos about.  His name is Smeagol and he is a niffler.  Nifflers are gold-diggers and are usually quite peaceful, but may occasionally bite if you are wearing something shiny.  I hid leprechaun gold all around the room and had the kids take turns letting Smeagol find pieces.  This was hilarious.  They really got into sweet-talking Smeagol and searching for gold. 

At the end of class, I used these free printables from one of my favorite blogs - Paper Sparrow.  (This chick is the cutest.)  Anyway, she had a blog party of HP stuff and came up with an adorable creature craft.  I just downloaded the pic and printed out a ton of them and let my little people choose which animal they'd like (owl, unicorn, rat, or cat).  They cut the animal out and poked brads into them for moving appendages and gave their critters names.  We went around in a circle and the kids had a chance to tell us what special ability their animal has...  Too funny. 

I'm not sure who is having more fun with this Harry Potter class... Anyway, stay tuned for Divination!

Harry Potter 101

One of the reasons I was a bit blog silent a few months ago is because I have been teaching a class lately.  It's an after-school Harry Potter class!  It's been a blast to do.  I'm crazy about all things Harry Potter and this after-school group is like an HP fan club, so this has been great.  The class is weekly for 3rd through 5th graders, so instead of it being a book group, it's more like we meet for Hogwarts classes and games.  (They are all on such different reading levels...)  When the kiddos are not meeting with me, they are having Quidditch matches with the PE coach.  Super cool.

Anyway, I thought I'd share a bit of what I've been doing, since I just got a new group and we are starting fresh.  For our first meeting, I "sorted" the kids into Hogwarts houses and we also decorated wooden wands.  Last time around, I actually had the kids take a quiz to sort themselves out, but I spent so much time grading quizzes that I didn't get a chance to talk with them or help them make wands.  This semester I have a class of 16 kids and, since I'm all by myself, there was no way I could make the same mistake.  So I made some house sorting cards.  I crumpled them up, stuck them in a cauldron, added some sparkly blue crinkle paper (for added fluff and so they couldn't cheat and peek at the card they pulled) and called the kids up one at a time to have them put on the sorting hat and draw a card.  Since I have 16 kids, I have 4 in each house - which is perfect because I am giving (and taking away) house points for the "end of term party." 

(And just in case you wondered, no I did NOT sing them the sorting song... Jim Dale does an excellent job of doing it all on his own.  Want to hear him?  Visit here.)

The wands turned out pretty great, too.  Mr. T chopped up some half inch dowel rods to a nine inch length and then I pre-treated them to some special wand goodness by making hot glue designs on them.  Then my Mr. spray-painted them brown.  They looked cool before the kids even got to them. 

After we decorated wands, I had the kids sit in each of their 4 houses and work on a group project so they could get to know each other better.  Since each house specializes in different attributes, I had them do an acronym activity where they took the name of their house (Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, or Ravenclaw) and wrote next to each letter a special defining characteristic.  One of my Hufflepuff kiddos gave me her sheet - here is what it read: H - Hard Working, U - Understanding, F - Famous, F - Fun, L - Loyalty, E - Excellent, P - Popular, U - Unforgettable, F - Funny, and F - Friendly.  Aren't they so smart?!?  I'm looking forward to a super fun semester getting to know these kids.

Next up, Care of Magical Creatures class!