Classroom Ideas
Tired of luke-warm lessons and hum-drum engagement? We all know that teaching is an artform closer akin to magic. And when it comes to classroom creativity, there’s no better inspiration than the wizarding world of Harry Potter! So, if you want to “wow” your students with wonder, look no further. Grab your best dress robes, put on your Harry Potter glasses, and get your wand at the ready. Here are 14 Harry Potter lessons sure to inspire your inner wizard.
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1. Herbology Hacks
Professor Sprout would agree that the plant life cycle is a staple of classroom science. Students become botanists when they plant quick germinating beans and track and graph sprout growth. Encourage kids to imagine and journal the magical properties their beans contain.
2. Potions and Science
Turn your art instruction into a potions lesson even Severus Snape would admire. With clear plastic cups, add water and food coloring, learning about color mixing along the way. Once you have several cups mixed, give each student their own clear cup and let them make a “potion.” Use either spoons or eye droppers to combine colors. Have them share with the class what their special potion does. Use pipette wands to observe the magic of mixology. Challenge students to write their own recipes and explain the magical effects.
3. Mythological Beasts
Are your history and social studies lessons lacking? Spruce them up with a Newt Scamander approved infusion of magical beasts. Choose a Potter-based creature to study like griffins, werewolves, or mermaids. Have students create posters that celebrate their chosen beast.
4. Magical Marauder’s Maps
Infuse your muggle math with a dash of science and a pinch of magic as students create scale maps of their classroom space—in invisible ink. Mix water and lemon juice to create ink. Use wand-shaped cotton swabs to draw on white paper. Let it dry, then add heat with a lightbulb. Presto! The heat reveals an invisible map and your classroom becomes an adventure in wizard cartography. Muggle mischief not included in Harry Potter lessons.
5. Weasely’s Recipe Challenge
Most children love candy. In Diagon Alley magical candy has a special place; Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes. Announce a challenge to your wizard writers: the Weasley Brothers are holding a magical candy contest. Draw and write your most magical candy creation to earn a magical candy-chef apprenticeship.
6. Wonderful Wands
Olivander’s new art class is helping students express themselves by making a personalized wand. The wand chooses the wizard as students decorate sticks with pipe,cleaner,jewels,feathers, and more to craft their own unique wand. Transition out the craft shop and have students write about the very first spell they will cast with their creation. Use these wood sticks for the wand.
Head over Feece and Fun for the full tutorial!
7. Quidditch Math
Math games promote practice and fluency in students. Become the Quidditch captain of your classroom and have your practice squads team up to score points and practice adding and multiplying skills. Got a championship crew? Here’s a link to a free printable to help with multiplication and division version. Ring your ‘golden snitch’ bell to end all matches. Get the free printable HERE.
7. Spellcraft
Many of the spells in Harry Potter have Latin roots. Have students use Google Translate to decipher the meaning of their favorite magical sayings. Magically minded muggles can create their own spells to solve classroom problems… “integrum homework!”
8. Hogwarts and History
History and fiction fuse together when you recreate Hogwarts as a classroom project. Inspire student collaboration and historical connections as students learn about actual castles while they tape, paint, and glue together one of literature’s most famous schools. Towel-tube towers and cardboard box battlements await your finest “imagineers.”
9. Owl Mail
Learn about different owls and promote writing skills with your very own Owl Mail Delivery service! Students research specific owl types and their unique abilities. Then, have students send notes and drawings to fellow wizards via the owlery. Sending a note to a “professor” or the “headmaster” of the school? Sounds like a job for Owl mail.
10. Cauldron of Curiosities
Combine fun dry-ice science and measurement-based math to concoct a cauldron of frozen dessert that will surely delight the students in your class. Here’s a recipe for dry-ice ice cream. Take your enjoyment to the next level with potions themed chapter read aloud while eating your hard work. You can also use dry ice in other Harry Potter lessons – like this cool crystal ball from Teach Beside M:
11. Divination Math
Divinations-inspired math makes base-ten connections come alive with a magical twist. Students make wands of ten unifix cubes, partner up, and take turns breaking their wand into two parts and hiding one piece behind their back. Opposite partners identify the length of the hidden wand and recite addition or subtraction number sentences to help fix the wand back together. Repairo!
12. Sorting Hat Hijinks
Last night the sorting hat mixed all the uppercase and lowercase magnetic letters into one pile! Silly hat! Mini-magicians and elder wand wizards alike must solve whatever challenges your sorting hat brain can create. Warning: Godric Griffindors’ sword is not OSHA or Principal approved for school use.
13. Augment Your Reality
Wish you could magically paint your classroom walls? You can with augmented reality (AR) and the World Brush app. Create an AR spelling word scavenger hunt, leave clues to the next read-aloud book, and even empower students to virtually draw on the walls as a classroom reward.
Via: Medium
14. Triwizard Tournament
Use a Sphero SPRK+ and iPads to teach drag and drop coding in this collaborative competition. Tournament houses create blue masking tape floor mazes and then code a Sphero to escape the maze. Engaged teams will use math and physics to code their way to the exit. The Triwizard cup awaits you at the exit, but beware. Here, there be dragons!
We hope these Harry Potter lessons have inspired you to innovate your instruction with fantastical flair. Tag Bored Teachers in photos of your creations as well as other ideas that inspire you to cast a spell of engagement on your students.
