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Harry Potter transforms learning into fun -
Summary:
Teaching techniques from the series are being brough into the classroom
Article:
Thanks to Wizardnews
Quote:
Alison Steven, aka Mrs. Shaggybottom, waves her wand and chants: "Shazam, shazoo, make a hole we can walk through."
It's a spell to round out a card trick young Muggles (non-magical folk in Harry Potter-speak) are learning in charms class at the weeklong Hogwarts for Muggles camp earlier this summer.
Once she sheds the witch's hat and cloak, Steven is the music teacher at RiverStone Community School. Down the hall in potions class beneath a jet-black cape is Kari Boazman, second grade RiverStone teacher and Hogwarts for Muggles mastermind.
This is the second year the pair have brandished their wands and donned their thinking caps to research countless magic books and science experiments.
The goal: To find the right mix for a magical week that slakes Potter fans' thirst for all things Hogwarts and sneaks in a little math, reading and science along the way.
The camp, geared for first through sixth graders, casts a spell on its participants.
"I like potions and charms and quidditch (a game played on brooms)," says Grant Koehl, 7, who'll be a second grader at St. Joseph's this fall. A wizard hat perches atop his head and a magic wand is tucked in a Hogwarts-issue pouch.
Koehl is in potions class, and he hardly looks up from the mysterious blue liquid he's ferociously stirring.
"This is toad urine," Boazman tells the class as she pours the final ingredient into their cups.
Ewwwww!
The class is making crystal gardens, an activity that's more science experiment than magic. But when you're waving a wand and chanting spells, it feels less like schoolwork and more like fun.
Julia Ballenger, 11, helps Koehl and other students pour the mixture into a small tin filled with charcoal briquets. She's a graduate of the first of two camp sessions this summer and had so much fun she came back to help.
She signed up to learn a few magic tricks and step briefly into the world of the books she loves.
"My favorite day was when they get sorted," Ballenger says. She's talking about a moment that changes all Hogwarts students' lives — real and imagined — when a magical hat shouts out in which house a student belongs: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw (Ballenger's house), Slytherin or Hufflepuff.
"We try to recreate scenarios from the book," says Steven as she gets ready to make Fizzing Whizbees (rainbow sherbet floats) for snacks.
Early in the week, kids climb out Harry Potter's bedroom window (a classroom window) to escape Harry's mean relatives, the dismal Dursleys .
Campers arrive at Diagon Alley, the commercial heart of the magical world, using flue powder (cornstarch). Then, with help from their own abundant imaginations, they take Hogwarts Express to school.
Once officially at Hogwarts, campers start the science experiments, like the crystal gardens or fake spills called "Filch's Fiascos" after the cranky caretaker who roams Hogwarts' halls looking for troublemakers.
"We whispered when we did it because we didn't want Mrs. Norris (Filch's cat) spying on us and telling Filch," Boazman says. "We have so much fun."
Boazman and Steven put on two sessions of camp this summer and last, with about half of the 25-kids-per-session hailing from RiverStone and the rest from all over the valley. They've already got new ways to mystify next year's batch of Muggles.
"We totally rely on kids' imagination," Boazman says. "These kids are doing math, science, reading, and writing, but they don't notice because they're having so much fun."
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