[HP4GU-California] HP summer camp

[firnrothiel]

i emailed someone who does a harry potter camp in palo alto, and she
responded:

"we do many activities, e.g art and craft.....making bookmarks, flower
pressing, painting etc, cooking e.g. chocolate frogs, butterbeer, pretzel
wands etc, they keep a journal, we do quidditch......"

i'm not sure how helpful that is, but maybe it'll spark some ideas.  i
wonder how they play quidditch....

the cooking could be fun, if you have access to a kitchen, or at least a
sink.  you could have a harry potter party at the end of the camp, with
pumpkin juice (or at least orange liquid of some kind!) and other foods that
the kids think are harry potterish.

you could study some of the creatures in harry potter (from the novels:
owls, dragons, thestrals, three-headed dogs, hippogriffs, flobberworms,
etc.; and there are even more in the mini-book "fantastic beasts and where
to find them"), and kids could draw pictures of them based on the book
descriptions.  or they could come up with their own magical beasts and draw
a picture and write a description, like a new entry for "fantastic beasts".

you could do little skits of scenes from the books/movies, if you have any
drama-inclined students.

you could make witch hats out of construction paper, glue, and glitter, and
wands out of dowels, ribbons, and other decorative objects (buttons,
stickers, etc.).

you could find one of those online sorting quizzes (or make one of your own,
if you're feeling extra creative), and sort the kids into houses at the
beginning of the week.  then you could do things with house points and all
the houses working toward gaining points for a party at the end of the week
or something.  (but stress inter-house cooperation, of course, rather than
competition!  that's one of my pet peeves with the books.  the houses are
rarely supportive of each other.)

here are some quizzes i found, but i haven't taken any of them, so i don't
know if they're age-appropriate:

http://www.thealmightyguru.com/reviews/harrypotter/docs/quiz-house.html

http://quizilla.com/users/FaitheRydia147/quizzes/An%20Intelligent%20Harry%20
Potter%20House%20Sorting%20Quiz/

http://nimbo.net/quiz/houses.html

http://www.personalitylab.org/tests/ccq_hogwarts.htm

i hope some of those ideas are useful for you!  be sure to report back after
the camp is done and let us know how it went.  :)

~firnrothiel

> -----Original Message-----
> From: HP4GU-California at yahoogroups.com 
> [mailto:HP4GU-California at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Rebecca Scalf
> Sent: Sunday, April 09, 2006 6:13 PM
> To: HP4GU-California at yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [HP4GU-California] HP summer camp
> 
> I will be teaching a Harry Potter themed week of summer camp 
> at Growing Light Montessori School in Oakland, ages 6-10. I 
> am looking for ideas... 
>