Harry Potter Craft & Writing Exercise: Slytherin's Locket/Horcruxes

By Holly Van Houten

I thought while everyone's jazzed about The Deathly Hallows movie that just came out, I'd post one of the crafts I do in my homeschool Harry Potter class at the Huckleberry Center for Creative Learning.  In the class we explore a number of themes from the books, including prejudice, fear of death, education, the media, technology and many others.   I also try to do a craft relating to each book in particular that goes along with the theme we're working on.  This craft involves explaining the concept of Horcruxes and even though Slytherin's Locket is introduced in Book 6, I do it as one of the Book 7 crafts because it's prominent there as well and I emphasize Horcruxes and Hallows in Book 7.  (For Book 6 we make Pygmy Puffs, Spectre Specs and create our own edition The Quibbler J)  Much of the action in Book 7 relates to finding and destroying horcruxes, including the locket.  If you're already familiar with the concept of horcruxes, feel free to skip below to the craft.  Otherwise, read on for a more detailed explanation that will help you understand the rationale behind the craft.

What is a Horcrux?

If you're not clear on the concept of Horcruxes, or if it's been awhile since you read the series, here's a quick horcrux tutorial.  Voldemort, whose name roughly translates as "Flight from Death" in french, and whose minions are known as the "Death Eaters," seeks to achieve a form of immortality by creating Horcruxes.  The idea is that you split your soul into smaller pieces and embed the parts in physical objects.  Then, if your physical body is destroyed, the part of your soul that you've hidden away in a horcrux still exists and you need only recreate a body - as Moldy Voldy does at the end of Book 4 (Before that:  in Book 1 he "possesses" Quirrell and in Book 2 we see his younger self - Tom Riddle - through the diary).  

The only way to rip apart your soul in this way, is to commit murder.  Voldemort has no qualms about this and before Harry is ever born, splits his soul into 7 pieces and places the fragments in the Diary, Marvolo Gaunt's ring, Salazar Slytherin's Locket, Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem, Helga Hufflepuff's cup and Nagini (his snake).  6 horcruxes + the piece of his soul still within himself (warped as it is).  Later, he unknowingly creates a 7th horcrux (thus splitting his soul into 8 parts) when he kills Harry's parents and attempts to kill Harry.  The lightning scar on Harry's forehead is this 7th horcrux -- which is why Harry realizes he must sacrifice himself for the good of others and willingly walks into the forest to be killed by Voldemort.  

It's here that the Christian overtones of the entire series should become obvious.  To save the world from Voldemort's "sins," Harry must sacrifice his life so that others will be saved.  Voldemort - faithless, immoral, friendless and unable to love - fears death and goes to great lengths in his selfish attempts to conquer it.  Harry - loyal, honest, loved and loving - embraces his own death for the good of others.

Heavy, dark, philosophical stuff -- these concepts are often difficult for kids to grasp, so as I explain what's happening in Book 7, we create our own version of Slytherin's Locket with a much "lighter" and happier twist.

Craft - Slytherin's Locket

To create our own horcruxes in class, I explain that we're going to do a variation on the concept of splitting one's soul.  Voldemort splits his soul through murder -- we, being smarter and ever so much nicer, however, have a much more powerful tool at our disposal --- writing.  Writing reflects who we are and in it's own way can help us understand the "parts" of us, that make up our soul.  

So, when we make our version of the locket, we create paper beads (I use the youtube tutorial embedded down below).  Students cut long triangular shapes of paper to roll into the individual beads -- but before they roll them, they privately write down their own hopes, wishes, dreams and fears -- one in each bead.  We thereby, place a bit our own "souls" into our necklaces, through writing.  I think this turns the craft into a meaningful lesson about writing as well.

We make several of these beads, securing them with glue once we've rolled them and making one extra large "locket shaped bead" for the centerpiece of the necklace.  We then paint them and string them.  The students treasure their versions of the famous locket, and only they know the real secrets held within.  

I hope you enjoy doing this craft with your child.  I think there are many important educational concepts here and much fodder for important and fascinating discussion.   Please feel free to repost this or email it to anyone you think might enjoy this lesson.

A more thorough tutorial on how to make and string paper beads is here.  Instead of magazines though, we use plain white paper - so, we can write on the inside.  We then paint them to make them colorful and more thoroughly seal them:

How to teach Harry Potter!

By Holly Van Houten

Many of you have asked that I explain in more detail about some of the things I teach in my Harry Potter courses.  So, in honor of the Deathly Hallows (Part 1) movie, opening at midnight tonight, I'm posting a brief explanation and a copy of my syllabus for this semester.  I'm hoping my three favorite teachers (pictured above) would approve!

Although the class this semester includes multiple crafts and we have a ridiculous amount of fun with them, they primarily serve to keep hands busy while we explore and discuss the larger themes I've selected for the day.  For example, we begin the semester with sorting, but since students are familiar with the whole series, we're already discussing the benefits (team work, loyalty, camaraderie) and drawbacks (divisiveness, animosity) of  the practice, with a view towards how Rowling ends the series with all 4 houses seated at the same table.  As we make our wands, we discuss how the three "Unforgivable Curses" are the negation of the three inalienable rights Jefferson delineates in the Declaration of Independence (Avada Kedavra/Life, Imperious/Liberty and Crucio/Pursuit of Happiness).

We explore issues of prejudice and discrimination that run throughout the series and consider Dumbledore's take on determinism.  We also look at the literary techniques of narrative misdirection, comic relief, time travel and parallel structure in the novels.  We venture into sundry wizarding classes:  potions, herbology, arithmancy and charms.  These correspond roughly to the muggle subjects of chemistry, botany, math and language arts.  For example, in charms we play around with poetic techniques like alliteration and couplets, before progressing to latin/greek prefixes and suffixes to devise our own Potteresque names for spells.  We even explore how Rowling's iteration of Chaucer's The Pardoner's Tale deepens her focus on Voldemort's obsessive fear of death!  Fun, fun stuff! J

I also heavily promote the writing.  Students regularly submit articles for our weekly edition of the "Daily Prophet" and we spend an entire week exploring "underground journalism" techniques when we create our own "Quibbler."

Anyway, this gives a you a taste of how we spend our time -- ENJOY!

Syllabus – Harry Potter’s Realm of Wizardy

Week 1 (9/13):  We’ll use the Sorting Hat (and discuss the benefits and drawbacks of sorting/segregation), begin creating our magic wands (with emphasis on the meaning of different kinds of woods/cores) and invite students to contribute articles to the Daily Prophet (our student created newspaper with weekly editions) .

Week 2 (9/20): Finish work on our wands and to examine connections between the “unforgivable curses” in the HP series and Jefferson’s concept of inalienable rights.

Week 3 (9/27):  Work on how to write articles for “The Daily Prophet,” make our Quidditch brooms and discuss the ins and outs of the game.

Week 4 (10/4):   Focus on Book 1 (Sorcerer’s/Philosopher’s Stone).  We’ll learn about the concept of “Stoicism” in relation to the Harry Potter series and make “The Mirror of Erised” and gobstones from Spell-O Clay

Week 5 (10/11): Gobstone games.  Narrative Misdirection.  Potions:  Dragon’s Drool!

Week 6 (10/18):  Focus on Book 2 (Chamber of Secrets).  Consider the influence of books in our lives and make our own “Diaries” decorated with the Hogwart’s Crest.  We’ll also examine symbolism of 4 houses.

Week 7 (10/25):  Arithmancy (the magic of numbers).  We’ll examine prime numbers and make Wizarding Currency – sickles, knuts & galleons.

Week 8 (11/1):  Charms!  (includes Language Arts instruction in alliteration, similes, rhyme, noun/adjective/verb recognition and Latin and Greek prefixes and suffixes.  Herbology:  Zingiber Roots

Week 9 (11/8):  Focus on Book 3 (Prisoner of Azkaban).  We’ll examine time travel (as literary motif) and make our own “Time Turners.”

Week 10 (11/15): Focus on Book 4 (Goblet of Fire) We’ll examine Rowling’s focus on discrimination/prejudice in the Harry Potter series and make our own S.P.E.W. badges.

Week 11 (11/29):  Focus on Book 5 (Order of the Phoenix)  We’ll examine Rowling’s views on Education and how she uses the Weasley twins as Comic Relief in an otherwise Tragic and dark novel, while making our own Skiving Snack Boxes complete with puking pastilles, fever fudge and nosebleed nougat. 

Week 12 (12/6):  Potions:  Chemistry experiments with potions that create movement! (Basilisk Antivenim & Chimaera Mixer)

Week 13 (1/3):  We’ll explore Rowling’s commentary on the media in her series and put together our own version of Luna Lovegood’s Spectre Specs and “The Quibbler.”

Week 14 (1/10):  Focus on Book 6 (The Half Blood Prince).  We’ll explore Voldemort’s back-story, make “Pygmy Puffs” and practice our “School Song” for the End of Semester show.

Week 15 (1/24):  Focus on Book 7 (The Deathly Hallows).  We’ll explore the difference between horcruxes and hallows (2 crucial themes, not only of book 7, but of the series as a whole), decorate our own “Hufflepuff Cups” (one of the horcruxes) and a special version of Slytherin’s locket.  

Harry Potter sings the Periodic Table of Elements

If you've read this blog for a bit, you already know that two things I love are Harry Potter and memorizing lists of facts we're all supposed to know -- through music.  Can you imagine how thrilled I was tonight when my friend Stephanie posted a link to Daniel Radcliffe (movie version of Harry P.) SINGING the periodic table of elements?  But it gets better, he sings it to the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan's "I am the Very Model of a Model Major General," another favorite thing, which you know if you've read this recent post (with an Obama version)!  Anyway, this is just fantastic and I must file it away in my homeschooling bag of tricks.  What an amazing way to learn this stuff!

To give credit where credit is due, Radcliffe is singing a version concocted by humorist Tom Lehrer.  I've included the lyrics below the video.  Get ready to memorize:




How cool is that?  Here are the lyrics:

The Elements (by Tom Lehrer)
Now, if I may digress momentarily from the main stream of this evenings symposium, I'd like to sing a song which is completely pointless but is something which I picked up during my career as a scientist. This may prove useful to some of you some day perhaps, in a somewhat bizarre set of circumstances. It's simply the names of the chemical elements set to a possibly recognizable tune. 

There's antimony, arsenic, aluminum, selenium,
And hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen and rhenium,
And nickel, neodymium, neptunium, germanium,
And iron, americium, ruthenium, uranium,
Europium, zirconium, lutetium, vanadium,
And lanthanum and osmium and astatine and radium,
And gold and protactinium and indium and gallium,
<gasp>
And iodine and thorium and thulium and thallium.

There's yttrium, ytterbium, actinium, rubidium,
And boron, gadolinium, niobium, iridium,
And strontium and silicon and silver and samarium,
And bismuth, bromine, lithium, beryllium, and barium.

Isn't that interesting?
I knew you would.
I hope you're all taking notes, because there's going to be a short quiz next period.

There's holmium and helium and hafnium and erbium,
And phosphorus and francium and fluorine and terbium,
And manganese and mercury, molybdenum, magnesium,
Dysprosium and scandium and cerium and cesium.
And lead, praseodymium, and platinum, plutonium,
Palladium, promethium, potassium, polonium,
And tantalum, technetium, titanium, tellurium,
<gasp>
And cadmium and calcium and chromium and curium.

There's sulfur, californium, and fermium, berkelium,
And also mendelevium, einsteinium, nobelium,
And argon, krypton, neon, radon, xenon, zinc, and rhodium,
And chlorine, carbon, cobalt, copper, tungsten, tin, and sodium.

These are the only ones of which the news has come to Harvard,
And there may be many others, but they haven't been discovered. 
Now, may I have the next slide please?
Got carried away there. 

A Typical Teaching Day....

By Holly Van Houten

Ever wondered what homeschoolers do all day?  For today's post, I thought I would describe a typical teaching day at the homeschool center where I work.  Tomorrow I will teach 4 classes of literature and writing, but I would venture to say such a day looks very little like what you think it might.

Homeschoolers just do things, um....  differently.

First up for the day is my Harry Potter class.  It's Arithmancy today, so the students (ranging in age from 7-11) will be learning about prime numbers.  Harry Potter is loaded with them:  There are 7 books in the series, students are eligible for Hogwarts at age 11, they come of age at 17, there are 7 years of schooling before graduation, etc.  The Wizarding monetary system relies on primes:  17 Sickles to a Galleon, 29 knuts to a sickle.   So, as we discuss all of this we'll be creating Wizarding money out of Fimo clay, cookie cutters, stamps and antiquing paint.  This will be a busy class.

Next up at 10:30 is literature and writing for teens.  We've been working on The Taming of the Shrew for the past few weeks and rather than an essay (as we did for The Canterbury Tales) students will be completing a collaborative writing project.  I put them in groups of three and their task was to re-write the ending of the play from the wager (bear baiting the wives scene) on.  Students had about 150 lines to rewrite and I gave them fairly wide parameters for doing so.  They just have to be able to demonstrate how their rewrite illuminates a theme from the play.  In class tomorrow, we'll be filming dramatized versions of their rewrites with students playing the various roles.  Should be interesting :)

Each class, by the way is 90 minutes, so after Read to Write (my official name for the teen lit class), I'll have 30 minutes to run and find my own tykes and get their lunch heated up, etc.  They will have been taking Graphic Design and Flaming Chemistry (Charlotte) and Graphic Design and Pottery (Grace).  Charlotte takes both my afternoon classes and Grace takes Liberty or Death (Revolutionary War projects) and my Percy Jackson.

After lunch I get to work with one of my favorite classes of all time:  my "noveling" students.  I have 12 students (ages 10-14) each writing 15,000 word novels this semester, which we'll publish on Lulu.com, so they walk away with a paperback copy of their own magnum opus.  Today we'll be working on writing dialogue.  To do this we'll be making our own comic strip versions of a few of our scenes to sharpen their ability to write dialogue that helps define their characters and creates tension while moving the story forward.  The rationale behind using comic strips to do this is to limit the amount of space they have in which to accomplish these goals.  We're working on making their writing more concise and less, how shall I put it:  wandering? flailing?  These kids are incredible though.  They're working so hard and each week they add another 1500 words to their overall word count.  I'm just trying to get a few less of those words to be "filler."

Then last up for the day, I'll teach my "Percy Jackson" class.  For those of you unfamiliar with this series (I guess above, I just assumed Harry Potter has entered the general lexicon), the Percy Jackson series of books by Rick Riordan takes Greek mythology and translates it into the modern world.  The concept is that Mt. Olympus (home of the gods) moves with the heart of Western Civilization and democracy and that because the United States is currently the seat of democracy in the west, Mt. Olympus is accessed through the Empire State Bldg (600^th floor – special elevator required), the entrance to Hades is in L.A. (of course :) and the labyrinth designed by Daedelus continues to expand and move just underneath the earth’s surface.  The main storyline of the series involves a return of the Titans, battling the greek pantheon for control once again.  

The class spends lots of time looking at various aspects of greek mythology (classical myths and myths as framed by the book).  I send various students on “quests” each week and they come back having written short stories detailing their adventures with the assigned mythological creatures and factual presentations for the class.  This is another hard working group of kids.   Our Greek god of the day for tomorrow is actually the goddess Artemis (the huntress), twin sister of Apollo.  So once our quest reports are finished we'll set about making our own archery equipment from pvc pipe, cotton strings, fairly small diameter dowels, eraser tips and lots of duct tape :)  This is not a craft I've done before, but this picture gives the basic idea.  We'll use these for archery practice when we hold our "Camp Half-Blood" day later this month.  


I wish I could say that's the end of my day, but 3:30 brings more adventures.  At that point, we're usually off to the library:  my own two kids, and usually a few others I babysit or who just also have time to kill before our 7pm Peter Pan rehearsal.  We live an hour from the learning center and rehearsal venue, so there's no going home for a break.  Instead, we get something to eat and find a place to hang out or a park to play in.  Tomorrow, the plan is to go to a pumpkin patch before heading over to the rehearsal.  I generally go grocery shopping while the kids rehearse, but tomorrow we have parent meetings, so shopping will have to wait until after 8pm.  I'm a fairly streamlined shopper, so hopefully we'll be on the road by 8:30pm and home by 9:30.


I'm exhausted just thinking about it!