This post is a continuation of the projects we attempted for the 2nd Annual Harry Potter themed birthday party we held back in November. To keep student busy while we prepared the House Cup Award Ceremony and End of Term Feast, we sent them to the DADA classroom where they took a 54 question Gilderoy Lockhart pop quiz and helped return escape pixies to their cage.
Pop Quiz
The quiz was, of course, essay questions all about the professor with all facts taken from the books, movies and even the Pottermore website. It was pretty tough coming up with 54 questions about this supporting character. I printed the 3 page quiz on longer legal-size paper, which I planned to stain like parchment with watercolor as pictured. We expected students to fail miserably in answering most of the obscure questions, but we were surprised by their knowledge of everything Lockhart. Two student just about had full marks and there were many humorously clever answers that we read aloud. Students all got a signed glossy photo for their effort.
- Would you like a copy of the quiz? Find a PDF here. And, you can find the answer key here.
- Or, why not try taking the playbuzz version to see how well can you do?
We wanted to give the DADA classroom some elements specific to 2nd year. So we came up with the following simple projects:
Framed Pictures
In the Chamber of Secrets movie, Lockhart's office was littered with framed pictures and paintings of himself, so I scoured the internet to print as many pics of Lockhart that I could find. I trimmed the printouts and covered all the framed photos we had in our house gathering them into our DADA room. (We must look like obsessed fans of the actor, Kevin Branagh. Hahaha) I tried my darnedest to find a decent pic of the large oil painting of him painting himself, but alas, I did not succeed on that one.
Signed Photos and Simple Peacock Quill
The desk in the classroom was littered with some of the professor's things. Some of the images I found of Lockhart were actually signed already. So, I printed up some of these in 5x7 glossies to pass out to students. ( you may notice the one on the right is actually signed as Branagh. Oops. Hehe) And, of course we had to have a peacock quill to sign them with. We made one at the last minute by floral taping a tail feather to a pen with the barrel removed. Then, I wrapped the stem with green string.
Textbook Covers
I didn't managed to find many decent pics online to use as book covers for the 1st and 2nd year textbooks used in the Harry Potter movies. I did find a few lower resolution ones, even a couple from the obnoxiously long list required by Lockhart. Some needed a little photoshopping to clean them up, but they looked convincing enough wrapped around random books. I made one complete set off of the textbooks reworking the tiny thumbnail images on Pottermore to fill in the missing covers I couldn't find.
- Magical Theory
- Standard Book of Spells - Grade 1 and 2
- History of Magic
- The Dark Forces
- Magical Drafts and Potions
- A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration
- 1000 Magical Herbs and Fungi
- (We already had "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them")
I only managed to find three of Lockhart's books. I'm amazed at the attention to detail on these books used in the movie. They are:
- Guide to Household Pests
- Break with a Banshee
- Year with the Yetti
So, the Pottermore images had to due to complete the Lockhart set, as well.
Pixie Hunt
We've sewn quite a few pixies in the past. And, now my mom is making smaller ones to infest our house. We decided to make another game with them. We created a cover for our pixie cage like the red one in the movie (Sorry, not pictured). Then when we lifted off the cover, the cage was wide open and empty. We asked the students to perform a quick hunt to round them up in the class room. House points were award to those who found them. (You may have notice Harry hanging out in the back of this photo. Daughter made me my very own Potter Pal Puppet for Christmas! She's getting so crafty on her own. Best present ever! )
With the quiz, framed pictures, signed photos and book covers, there was a great deal of printing in this portion of our party decoration. But, we lucked out when our local friendly printer, Minuteman Press (who were super friendly and helpful), was having a special on color copies for half price! Perfect timing! Yay! It ended up costing well under the $20 I had budgeted for all the book covers and photos. I was even able to print some more candy boxes and labels (not pictured). I tried a couple new versions that I made changes to. Also, worked on some designs for wizard cards, but they are far from usable, yet. Maybe this year.
After classes we tallied the house points and met in the Great Hall for the Awards Ceremony. The daughter says the Lockhart Quiz and the Degnoming were her favorite things. The winners of the house cup, Slytherin (boo, I think they cheated.), received boxes of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans and a bottle of Butter Beer. Some high scoring students also got gobstones marble sets in their house colors. I still have a few random things left to share like our birthday cake. Stay tuned!