GEN: On a HIGH: Harry Potter Jeopardy!!!

[Barb Engvall <engvallb@ELLTEL.NET>]

HI ALL!

WOW, I a still on a HIGH 6 hours after school is out for the day! I
organized a Harry Potter Jeopardy game for our 4th graders today that was
absolutely WONDERFUL!

A few weeks ago I invited any interested 4th grader to take a qualifying
test of 99 questions about all 4 current books. It ended up the top 8 were
the ones who were sorted into the 4 teams (guess what the names of the teams
were!!!???). (They had scored 70% or better) I had a friend (and my husband)
work out a buzzer system for the kids to use, created the Jeopardy board on
butcher paper and printed-out answers...the kids had to ask the questions,
after all. I used assorted web sites for determining questions for both the
the qualifying test and the actual Jeopardy game along with re-reading the
books myself the last 2 months. It was a challenge to come up with questions
that were 'not too hard and not too easy'. I had only about 3-4 questions
today that someone didn't know the answer to.

I had several great adult volunteers to act at a "Vanna" (is that term in
the dictionary yet??) to expose each question, keep score and to help
determine which team buzzed in first. The audience (3rd and 4th graders)
were given STRICT instructions that they were NOT to give out answers...I
told them to either put their hand over their mouth or a finger in their
mouth...it was soooo funny to see almost half the audience literally put
their hands over their mouths!

Anyway, the contestants did a super job as did the audience. I had alerted
our district publicity person and asked her to send out a press release to
the local TV and newspaper. There were 2 of the 3 local stations there and
they stayed the entire hour...you know how they usually 'hit and run'...took
time to interview some of the kids afterwards. I have only seen 1 station
and of course it was edited out to about 30 seconds, but it was still
terrific.

I have learned loads, but I think that we will continue to do this in the
future...more Harry Potter, perhaps a state trivia contest after all the
classes have concluded their study, Math Jeopardy, perhaps even using the
books in our state-wide chapter book award...

Oh, prizes. Berty Botts Flavored beans, some great posters that were in the
Scholastic Book Fair that I also had in the library at the same time (I
won't ever do both at the same time again...dumb!), some great HP stickers I
found at Michaels, and some of the really nice metal HP bookmarks.

Sorry this is so long, I guess I am STILL hyped! What a great way to end the
school year. It was loads of work, but in the end it was worth it all!

--
Barb Engvall
Library Media Specialist
John Campbell Elementary School
408 N. 1st Street
Selah, Wa  98942

engvallb@elltel.net

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