Harry Potter for Hospitals

So what started out as a fun way to connect students to themes of the middle Ages through Harry Potter art projects turned into something much, much bigger. An awesome student of mine named Sierra thought of the idea to raise money to donate new Harry Potter book sets to children suffering from illnesses in hospitals! What FABULOUS idea and one I simply couldn't turn down! So in a matter of a week, she and I have written a donors choose grant, created a family event fundraiser and have even invited J.K. Rowling! I'll detail when it's all said and done, but for now Wish us luck!

8th Grade Quilled Magical Creatures

Last year I was just amazed at a Paper Quilled Dragon Project the kids piloted. This year with the Harry Potter theme, students chose a magical creature to quill with a partner form their house. Just like last year, I am blown away, not only by the quality of student work but the variety of subjects and translations. I also think students were more invested this year because they got to choose the subject and create with a partner whereas last years subject was a dragon and it was a solo project. Paper quilling takes a lot of time and patience these quilled creatures are simply magical!

7th Grade Tooled House Banner

This project is a Fresh twist on an old favorite, aluminum tooling. This year students created their own coat of arms for their personal house banner. These beauties will shine in the Harry Potter Art Exhibit!

8th Grade Potions! Recipe and Bottle Collaboration

SO many firsts for me with this 8th grade project. Using Edpuzzle to flip the class, using Celluclay for sculpting  over recycled vitamin bottles and DipPens for Pen and Ink Techniques. The kids, as always, blew my socks off with their projects! Plus,  I received a lot of positive feedback from the kids as they really liked that they got to pick their own project! Check these out!

7th Grade Crystal Wands

You can't have a Harry Potter Art Unit without wands, right? I decided to add some science to the mix having the students learn about matter by growing borax crystals to add to their wands. We learned about crystal and wood meanings and then students designed their wands accordingly. This was a super fun block day activity! Ollivanders would be proud!

7th and 8th Grade Needle Felted Owls

I learned how to needle felt a year ago and LOVED it! At the time, the curriculum was sort of "locked in" for the year so I set it aside thinking there may be a time when the art form could be worked into the mix. Enter Harry Potter Unit!

So when I decided upon a Harry Potter unit I was determined to work an owl project into the unit line up. That's when I learned about the "Fuller", one of the WORST jobs of the Middle Ages. The Fuller was a person who processed wool which was one of the most important items of trade in Europe during that time. When wool was woven into cloth the fibers were loose and greasy. The Fuller processed the loose and greasy wool by marching up and down over it for 7-8 hours in a vat of, wait for it.... PEE!!! GROSS! SO Perfect for middle School!

The best part is that the marching in pee process locked the fibers together into a tighter weave and lessened the grease. It was a FELTING PROCESS! So there ya go. An AWESOME historical lesson that makes a lasting impression. Once I showed them the Fuller Video, my students got so grossed out that they totally remembered what the job was, what it entailed and how it connected to history.

Please let me introduce to you a modern day version of the felting process: Needle Felted Owls.

7th & 8th Grade Harry Potter Launch

It happened over winter break. I was at the theater with my family watching Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them when I was struck with a vision of art in the style of Harry Potter. Maybe it was the recliner chairs or the over salted popcorn that put me in this state but I could not break my focus away from what the beasts of that movie were doing to my mind. It was spinning!

Up until that point I have been integrating the middle ages into the art room for as long as I can remember trying to connect students with the era they are studying through art forms. The artwork, in my opinion always turns out amazing and has evolved over the years. However, when students reflect on the themes of the unit the historical connection seems to get forgotten, or at least it seemed so. How to make it stick? Harry Potter!!! What? How?

Step 1: Develop the projects. Well, this was kind of easy because some of the middle ages projects HAD themes of Harry Potter (Repousse, Quilling)! After more research and development I came up with so many project ideas that I just HAD to make this a unit for both 7th and 8th Grade! Now how to hook the kids? A Launch!

Step 2: Connect with our AMAZING librarian Elsa Prettol (who happens to be a major Potter Fan) and ask for her help. We met for about an hour and shared ideas for what a launch would look like. More project ideas came from that meeting! It was so much fun to work with Ms. Prettol that I am thinking of launching more units with her support!

Step 3: Get into the Pottermode! I turned the classroom into a Hogwarts Classroom overnight with a seating chart for each house, house point charts and hung a head Mistress sign over my desk. Ms. Prettol had the Owl Post deliver invitations that included acceptance letter to Hogwarts to EVERY (180) 7th and 8th grade student.  On the day of the launch I threw on my Professor Mcgonagall costume and lead the kids to Platform 9 3/4. SO FUN!

Check out the pics of the launch. Once we arrive at platform 9 3/4 students boarded the train to Hogsmeade, walked on a path to Hogwarts, learned the history of each house, and got sorted. SO FUN!

7th Grade Burrow Challenge

For years the Paper Model House project was the first in a lineup of 3 scale-projects. This year I decided to shift things around and teach the 2-d scale projects first to scaffold the final 3-d Paper Model House project. Makes sense, right?
Then I got a wild idea to challenge the students with constructing the Burrow, Ron Weasley's house from Harry Potter! SO FUN! This is what they created!

8th Grade Claymation

The culmination of the Digital Art Unit is Claymation Animation- brutal, I know. AS IF!!! This is one of my favorite projects for many reasons, but I think the main reason is because it has that element of PLAY that seems to trigger the imagination. The kids have FUN! After having done this project for two years now I definitely see room for improvement and feel a need to add more depth to the project but that'll come. As for now, check out some of my favorite scenes and characters!