Harry Potter Learning Activities

This week for Harry Potter, we read another chapter of the book, filled in the questionnaire that related to the chapter we'd read and also did some .

In one of the earlier chapters one of the things on Harry's school book / uniform list was that they may bring either an owl, cat or toad with them to Hogwarts, so I had the girls write a paragraph for me on which they'd choose and why? The Fashionista thought an owl would be good to poop on any enemies (this is what you get when you homeschool I suspect, trying to make their mama laugh!), Agent Smelly included the following poem in her answer.

The Moonlight Owl

My postie was my owl,

it delivered late at night,

that's why I called it the Moonlight owl

but it had a bad habit to bite.

Their Family of Owls

Both girls chose owls (I suspect because of Harry's own beautiful owl) so when we did art later in the week I had them make clay owls. Our clay wasn't very good as it kept breaking up but they still came out kind of cute. TF made one big one and AS made a wee family.

For living maths I wrote up some random maths questions based on the wizarding currency, galleons, sickles and knuts (IE one galleon = 17 sickles) and on some of the things mentioned in the book. Did you know unicorn horns are 21 galleons each ... seems rather pricey to me but these ones are apparently silver so maybe that's not a bad price.  The "chocolate" gold coin was an incentive for them ... nothing like a little bribery to have them finish quickly so they could eat their galleon.

Harry Potter Quotes

As part of our Harry Potter study, we chose some quotes from the series and then we discussed them.

We then picked the quotes that we liked best (or in the case of a certain child, the one that didn't look too long to write!) and wrote them in Sharpie's onto some of our dinner plates and then low baked them so they'd set.

These are the quotes we have chosen thus far ...

- It is our choices, Harry that show us who we truly are, far more than our abilities.

- We've all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are.

- We must all make the choice what is right and what is easy.

- what's comin' will come and we'll meet it when it does.

And these are some more that we are going to do ... some plates were int he dishwasher and I really couldn't be bothered handwashing them ...

- If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.

- It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.

- Happiness can be found in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.

- It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.


We are a bit chuffed with them ... cause we are quite nerdy that way.

Starting Harry Potter

We are pretty big fans of Harry Potter around here ... especially the Mama ... I know, sad but true. I just adore the series!

Even though the girls have seen the movies, they have never read the books so I decided to start reading the first of them, Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone, to them this week.

At the same time I have been having a look around for some school work that they could do along side the books and confess I am having a blast.

I found a terrific acceptance letter to Hogwarts online at HSLaunch (Homeschool Launch). I played around with the font and added some clip art and then printed the letter on some cream coloured paper which came out looking ever so cool and official. I dropped the letters on the girls work table and walked away. I could hear their squeals of joy in the other room.

The idea of the letter is that they had to "type" an official reply on the computer accepting the position, print it off and redeliver it back to me. It jokingly says to deliver it "by owl" on the letter and there is a date their letters had to be back by. Well despite them having a few days to reply, much to my amusement, they desperately got on to the PC as soon as they had some free time, to write their replies.


Agent Smelly wrote ...

Dear headmaster Xxxxxx,

I would love to be in Hogwarts school of the wizardry arts.
Do you mind if I ask a few questions? Of course you don’t!
When do I get chosen to be in my group, Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, or Ravenclaw? I would love to be in Gryffindor!
Do I get a wand? I would love a wand!
Do I get a robe? I love robes!

When do I start?  It sounds like so much fun to be a wizard!

From...the soon to be wizard,
Xxxxxxx Xxxxxxx



The Fashionista's reply ...

Dear Headmaster XXXX,

I would love to attend the Hogwarts School of Magic! Thank you so much. I will enjoy it so very much!

I would like to be sorted into Huffle-Puff if possible please.

Where do I get my supplies: wand, broom-stick, cloche, etc?

When does the magical school term start? Is it the same as normal schools?

How exactly do I get there? I mean, I know about 9 ¾ but what station?

Do we get our own rooms or do we get sorted into rooms of let’s say three or four?

About the classes, do you take any? Is there allot of reading involved?

Yours sincerely,      

Soon-to-be, Witchy, Xxxx.   

They do ask a lot of questions don't they? I do think you can probably feel their excitement in their letters though!


I later saw Agent Smelly on a chair in the dining area tying a rope to the curtain rod and she looked at me and said "no questions please mummy" so I left her to it. Later on I was called over to the table to sit and then lo and behold she had tied her owl puppet to the string and placed her own letter in it's arms and then let it slide down the rope to where I sat. I was gobsmacked and couldn't help but laugh. Apparently she took the "delivery by owl" rather literally.

Such a fun activity for us all.