Book Bag Activities for
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
By: Christina Romeu

• Rowling, J.K. (1997) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. New York: Scholastic Inc.

Rationale:

• I chose this book for several reasons. I think that it is a book that will appeal to all children and adults and is therefore something that the teacher can easily discuss and share opinions with and have an educated discussion with the students. There are also several books that can be related to this not only by the same author but by other author’s as well. Several fun more personal education lessons can be developed as well as more practical school subject area lessons.

Information about the Author:

• Ms. J K Rowling was born on July 31st, 1965 in Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire, England. Her given name at birth was Joanne Kathleen. Ms. Rowling has one sister, Di, was born 2 years after J K. When she was nine years old her family moved again to Tutshill. Ms. Rowling attended a primary (grade school) in Tutshill, and then, later, she attended Wyedean comprehensive. Ms. Rowling describes herself as being shy, freckly, with no natural athletic ability, but a great love of literature. Later, when she graduated from the Wyedean Comprehensive, she attended Exeter University. Here Ms. Rowling studied French, (after her parents encouraged her into, what they believed, would be a wonderful career, as a bilingual secretary. After graduation, however, it didn’t take Ms. Rowling long to realize that she was not meant to be a secretary. Self described as “the worst secretary ever, very disorganized”, she found it increasingly hard to remain attentive during meetings, actually writing story ideas instead of taking notes, as she had been instructed.
• When Ms. Rowling was 26 years old she moved to Portugal to be an English teacher. Ms. Rowling has been quoted many times as saying she loved teaching English, often teaching in the afternoons and evenings, so that she could be free to work on her writing during the mornings. It was during this period that she began working on a story about a ‘wizard”.
• Ms. Rowling met and married a journalist in Portugal (he was Portuguese), and her daughter, Jessica, was born in 1993. Shortly after the birth of her daughter, the marriage ended in divorce, and Ms. Rowling, along with her infant daughter, moved to Edinburgh, Scotland so that J K could be near her younger sister, Di. It was during this time period that Ms. Rowling became determined to not only finish her Harry Potter ‘wizard’ novel, but to get it published. Often she would write in restaurants, where her daughter and she could stay warm while she wrote. Ms. Rowling requested a grant from the Scottish Arts Council, which was eventually given to her, in order to complete her book. When it was completed, after several rejections, Ms. Rowling sold the novel, Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone, to Bloomsbury in the UK for the equivalent of about $4,000.
• To maintain her and her daughter, Ms. Rowling began working as a French teacher. After several months Arthur A Levine Books/Scholastic Press bought the American rights to the first “Harry Potter”, and Ms. Rowling received enough money to give up teaching and write full time. Ms. Rowling has described this moment as the happiest of her life.
• After Bloomsbury Children's Books published the book in June 1997, it wasn’t long before Ms. Rowling was recognized as a major discovery. The awards and accolades grew quickly for both Harry Potter and Ms. Rowling. In 1997 the book won The British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year, and the Smarties Prize.
• When published in the US, in September of 1998, the book was renamed and released by Arthur A Levine Books / Scholastic Press, the new title was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
• Ms. Rowling quickly wrote a sequel, Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets, which was published July of 1998 in the UK, and in June 1999 in the USA. Immediately after this successful sequel a third book, Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban, was published in July and September of 1999, in the UK and the USA, respectively.
• To her amazement, and joy, Ms. Rowling became a household word when the first three installments of the Harry Potter series took over the top 3 slots in the New York Times bestsellers list. (It’s interesting to note that the books also did as well, achieving similar results, in the UK)
• By the Summer of 2000, Ms. Rowling has earned, reportedly, over $400 million dollars for her first three Harry Potter books, which have been printed in 35 languages, and sold over 30 million copies. Her fourth, most anticipated, book in the popular series, entitled Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, pre-sold over one million advanced copies, with a first printing of 5.3 million. Because of her domination and incredible success on the New York Times bestseller list, the decision was made to introduce a bestseller list for children’s books, which would eliminate the dominating factor of these bestsellers on the current The New York Times bestseller list. This brought a tremendous amount of relief and happiness to a lot of competing authors.

Questions to use with the story:

• Knowledge: Why does Harry live with the Dursley’s? Who does Harry meet at King’s Cross Station?
• Comprehension: Explain why Harry could not find Platform 9 and ¾. Describe the sorting ceremony that all first year students go through.
• Application: Give Harry some advice on how to deal with Malfoy.
• Analysis: What are some of the reasons that Harry and Malfoy dislike each other? What are some of the reasons that Professor Snape dislikes Harry?
• Synthesis: How would things be different if Snape had liked Harry’s father? What would Harry’s life at school be like if he didn’t play Quidditch?
• Evaluation: Which of the characters do you relate the most to? If you could be any character in the book who would you be and why?

Ten activities to use with the story:

• The Mirror of Erised: Read the passage about the Mirror of Erised aloud to the class (p. 212-214). Ask the student what they think they might see if they were to look into the mirror. After they share some of their ideas have them draw a picture of what they would see. To accompany the picture have them write a paragraph describing what they see in the mirror, why they would see it, and how having it would make them feel.
• Potion Time: Tell the students that they are going to be creating a magical potion that will give someone a special power or skill. The first thing that they will need to do is decide what their potion will do when someone drinks it. Next the student will actually write a recipe for their potion with actual ingredients and measurements that they will choose.
• What does Hogwarts look like?: As the student read the book they should be paying attention to descriptions of where things are located within the school. At various points throughout the book they will draw a rough sketch of Hogwarts, and these sketches will become more detailed each time they draw. At the end of the book they will draw a final layout that will include all the parts of the castle. This activity will allow them to see the school in a more concrete and spatial way.
• Harry Potter Skit: Divide the class into several small groups of approximately four to five students. Within the groups the students will create a readers theater using any chapter or scene from the book. Each group will be given the opportunity to create and use props and costume to help with their skit. The groups will then perform their prepared skit for the class. This is a good activity because it allows for creativity, group interaction, and movement.
• Hogwarts Poetry: Break the class into pairs and if necessary trios. The students will write an acrostic poem after you give them a brief lesson on poetry and what an acrostic poem is. They will be given the option to write their poem about any character or even within the book. The group will then draw an illustration that will go with their poem. Finally the teacher will collect the classes work and have in bound in a book for the entire class to enjoy at their leisure.
• Strengths and Weaknesses: An important part of any good character in a book is that they appear human and this means that they need to have both strengths and weaknesses. Halfway through the book and at the end they will write a list of strengths and weaknesses on a chosen character. When they compare the two lists they will be able to see the growth of the character through the events in the book. The students will then be able to write a paragraph discussing how their chosen character has grown.
• Advice: The students will be given a prompt to respond to in a brief paragraph or two. The prompt is: What advice would you give Harry, Ron, and Hermoine about dealing with all the problems at school? The students will then share their responses with the class who will collectively write a letter to them giving them the advice.
• What Would You Do?: Before the students begin reading ask them what do they think they would do if they suddenly discovered that they had magical powers. They will then write few sentences describing their adventures with their magical powers.
• Wizard Vocabulary: During the reading the teacher will keep a list of wizard terms that they come across in the book. With this list the students will define each word and create a matching list, crossword and word search. The word searches and crosswords will be collected and combined into an activity book and a copy will be made for each student. Afterwards the students can discuss how important the wizard words are to the development of the story and the characters.
• Potter Trivia: The culminating activity will be a trivia game competition between four teams of students. Divide the students as evenly as possible into four teams and then have each team draw which one of the houses at Hogwarts they will represent: Griffyndor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff. Each team will be asked a question, if they get it right they will earn a point for their team and it will be the next teams turn. If they get it wrong the question will be asked to the remaining teams and whichever team answers it correctly first will get a point.

Bibliography of other related books:

• Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Scholastic Inc
• Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Scholastic Inc
• Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Scholastic Inc
• Lewis, C.S. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Harper Collins
• Dahl, Roald. James and the Giant Peach. Puffin