HIT: Harry Potter

[Holly Tesar <dsh000@MAIL.CONNECT.MORE.NET>]

Many, many thanks to everyone who sent me ideas for Harry Potter
activities.  Several people asked for a HIT, so here it is:

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Try the Scholastic Network site - http://www.scholasticnetwork.com  They
have a wonderful Harry Potter section with activities and games.

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On my Harry Potter Website, I have a page of games - word games and the like.

Take a look.

http://www.mikids.com/harrypotter/games.htm

In March I will be publishing a Harry Potter scavenger hunt/webquest.

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How about making and/or serving one of the English dishes mentioned in the
book?

You can find the recipe for Knickerbocker glory online.
http://www.catering-uk/features/july-planner.html#Desserts

Other ideas for book one:
Read description of Uncle Vernon on page 25(Hard cover), draw a picture of
Uncle Vernon based on Harry's description.

Use a Frye Diagram.  Make a circle. Divide it in half horizontally.  In the
top half, put good people/things.  In the bottom half, put bad
people/things.  Be able to explain why you put things where you did.  At the
end of the story, go back and look at where you put people/things.  Are you
satisfied with your choices?  Did any of the items change?

Illustrate or build a model of a quidditch field/game.

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Call Scholastic and ask for the free Harry Potter activity kit.  There's a
crossword, a quiz, and  a dicitonary . My 5th graders loved the crossword!

Also on the web site www.scholastic.com/harrypotter there are more
activities and ideas.

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I did a 5 week Harry club last fall--had about 12 kids after school one
day a week for an hour.  We spent the first day reading--I read aloud,
and some chose to read  on their own.  The second week, I made a large
sorting hat and had them put in on and draw a name of a house from a
basket--then they divided into groups of their houses, and designed a
shield to go with their house.  I displayed these in the hall, along
with their pictures.  We also went into the computer lab one day and
spent some time looking at the Harry sites.  there are some puzzles and
games on those.

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I have heard of classes playing Quiditch (sp), and kids dressing up as
the characters.  Maybe a reader's theater skit?

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I've been making up my own, geared towards grades 3 - 5.  So far I have Harry
Potter and the Mysteries of the Media Center (Dewey Decimal System) and Harry
Potter and the Challenge of Dumbledore's Dictionary (Guide Words.)
Both are based upon Harry Potter vocabulary; however, the student does not
need to have read the books in order to answer the questions. It's very time
consuming, but the kids are loving it since I've also integrated the format
of "So You Want to be a Millionaire."  All I had to say was "Is that your
final answer?" and they played right into it, asking for life lines, 50/50
etc.  It's the most fun I've had with them since losing
my library clerk and trying to come up with something meaningful for them to
do while I'm carding their returns...

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How about having them identify some magic they want to accomplish --
e.g., homework magically being done, becoming class president, whatever
-- and then create the spell or potion that would accomplish the goal?
Of course, they’d have to write why they wanted this magic and why their
spell/potion would work.

I have a group reading “The Wizard of Earthsea” and I want to have the
students compare some aspect of the book (e.g., a character, the wizard
school, author’s style, plot twist, whatever) with the same type of
thing in another wizard book. Since all of them have read Harry Potter,
I knew they would have a book to compare it with. (And even before I’ve
had a chance to assign this, one of the students started comparing the
book to “Ella Enchanted.”) Your students could probably compare Harry
Potter with something else.  (Just as aside, ever notice how aliens in
adult books are always malevolent, while aliens in kids books are
usually more benign and downright friendly?)

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Holly Tesar, Librarian
Excelsior Springs High School
612 Tiger Drive
Excelsior Springs, MO  64024
dsh000@mail.connect.more.net
PH:  816-630-9210

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