Welcome to my blog where I hope to give further explanation to the literature guide I made for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and have listed for sale on my Etsy shop A Cozy View.
Let's jump right in! I want to say that my goal for making this was to use with my two kids that I homeschool to help them fall in love with this story as much as I did when I was their age. Will it work? Only time will tell. I want you to remember to only take the material you want to use with your students and leave the rest. Make this your own and build on it if that fits your home better. My guide doesn't have any projects or crafts, but I know many homeschool families that would love to have some. And if a teacher with a classroom wants to use this guide, they would know best what works with their students.
My kids, who are in 5th and 3rd grade when making this guide, already know the story somewhat to book 4. So the way we will be going through this guide may look different than a child who is brand new to the story. I plan on giving my kids all of the chapter pages prior to me reading the chapter so they can work on them as I read. Obviously, if they were brand new to the story I would be giving away spoilers. When we get to a book they don't know yet I do plan on changing to giving them all the pages after I have read them that chapter.
Something I want to talk about before getting diving into the guide chapter by chapter, are the character, settings, animal, and creature pages. I created a blank template for each of these with the thought you would print a new one off each time it's needed. You won't need one for every chapter. I wanted to have a spot where they could write about a specific character and then bring that same paper back out when they want (or you as their teacher) to add more info. For example, in book one we meet many main characters, but then those characters grow, and we learn more about them as the books continue. When we first meet Harry, we don't know he can talk to snakes until book 2, even if it is hinted at in book 1. The centaur creatures we meet in book 1 come back into the story much more as the books continue. So feel free to revisit these pages and build upon them as you go.
All the activity pages or coloring pages I created are labeled for which chapter they go with. There are about 47 pages in all. I made them on the Ipad Procreate app, and did not learn that you could type on that till way late in the game. So, they are a bit campy, I will work towards using the typing tool for cleaner font in the following book guides that I make.
**All links in this post are affiliated links. You do not need any of these items to do the guide. They are just extra ideas if you’re looking for a bit more magical pizzazz.**
Chapter 1- How you want to go about giving your students the material is up to you. If they have never heard the story before, the order of events section will give away many spoilers. You may enjoy sitting on the couch together while you read and do the pages afterwards. Or allow them to color or do the activity sheets while you read.
Some of the questions on the student pages are opinion questions. Not all chapters will have opinion questions.
The optional item I picked for this chapter are lemon drops, https://amzn.to/46bi7Jn
I will be pulling them out to give to my kids at the time Albus Dumbledore offers one to Professor McGonagall. Nothing big, just a little surprise to add a little magic and fun to the experience.
The Dig Deeper sections are for those who want to add a bit more of a challenge to their students. There's nothing that intense, and if you want to skip these go right ahead. I don't plan on doing all of these with my kids.
Chapter 2- Some of the activities I came up with are prompts to do on a blank piece of paper. Designing a bedroom in a cupboard is one of those activities. Remind the students to keep it small, think of the bare minimum that they would need and could fit, and try and make it their own. Maybe posters on the wall, or a certain paint color.
I created a blank comic strip to use for this chapter. It will be used in another chapter as well. Have fun with these snake activities, and the more creative the better.
The Dig Deeper for this chapter is a drawing activity for a snake of their choosing. No activity sheet is made for this assignment.
Chapter 3- The first Settings Page! So I have a blank template for this, but I didn't put anywhere to draw this. Feel free to add that if you like. So much happens at this location, but that gets added as the books continue.
A lot of the activity prompts I came up with encourage the student to use their creativity and imagination. My kids are great with this and I'm looking forward to what they come up with.
The Dig Deeper activity is an opportunity to really consider someone else's needs and priorities. It might be a surprise what they come up with.
Chapter 4- Some of the activity pages will build on the chapter questions. I love how Hagrid's coat almost seemed to become its own character in this chapter and really wanted to highlight it.
Optional Item- this is really over the top, but I want to surprise my kids with a small birthday cake. They won't see it coming and it will be awesome. You can either get a cake mix and frosting and do it yourself or order one from your local grocery store.
The Dig Deeper is having the student make the cake themselves. Finding the ingredients and following a recipe can be a great challenge.
Chapter 5-The first creature page! The goblins of the bank.
Optional Item are chocolate coins. Linked below. You can decorate them to look like the 3 different wizard coin options. However, I would say, don't spend a ton of time decorating them because your kids will have them unwrapped in a matter of seconds! I will probably cut out circles from construction paper and tape them on with a G, S, or K written on them. Nothing fancy. https://amzn.to/3ZKD5fK
For the map activity, don't worry about them being in any specific order. It's more of them planning it out and being creative.
Chapter 6- Both of the student questions in this chapter are sort of opinion questions. But they will make great conversation topics with your students.
Optional Items- you knew they would need to be included. I've added links below for Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans. https://amzn.to/3ZFuNWb
As well as the link for the Chocolate Frogs. https://amzn.to/3PwlJOI
Dig Deeper for this chapter (as well as chapter 9) is have your student come up with their own extra activity. This puts your student in the teacher's chair and forces them to consider a lesson plan. Might be a fun assignment for them!
Chapter 7- Alright, so my kids have had established Hogwarts houses for YEARS now. And there are SO MANY ways to go about sorting your students if you want to do so. At the very least, I have included a coloring sheet with all 4 houses represented. You could simply get a paper clip and a pencil, hold the paper clip in place with the pencil, and flick the paperclip to see where it lands. But please see my business partner Pinterest to search for ideas to your heart's content. My 10 year old had a Harry Potter birthday party when he was 5, and the houses were chosen then. There's no changing it, loyalties run deep here. Cupcakes with hidden colors were made as well as a Sorting Hat. Each guest sat on a stool in turn, had the Sorting Hat placed on them and picked a cupcake at random. Then took a big ol' bite right there to reveal their House.
Optional Item here could be stickers for their Hogwarts house to decorate their school binders with. If you don't already know which house they are, you'll want to find a variety so you have options depending on what the Sorting Hat declares. Stickers are linked below.
https://amzn.to/3RZkXwT SLYTHERIN!
https://amzn.to/3LFNjYX HUFFLEPUFF!
https://amzn.to/3ZDTRwU GRYFFINDOR!
https://amzn.to/3PBi1Ud RAVENCLAW!
Dig Deeper for this chapter is to think about a quote made by Albus Dumbledore. A lot of his quotes from the books are known, and so when one comes up I'm going to have my students try and explain what they think it's about. I might even put a section in their binder for Dumbledore Quotes.
Chapter 8- Not much to explain with this chapter, moving right along!
Chapter 9- This is getting easier.....nothing to mention.
Chapter 10- So this being the Halloween chapter you could really add any extra candy options that you like, but the optional item I'm going with is an idea my business partner Pinterest gave me. Get those long think pretzel sticks and smear green frosting on one end. And it looks like a wand covered in Troll boogers! I will of course wait till the moment Harry pulls his wand out of the trolls nose to present them to my kids. They will love it, I'm looking forward to it.
Dig Deeper is to look further into stories about trolls and write a report on one of them. The parameters of that report are up to you.
Chapter 11- On the Quidditch coloring page I do have all 3 of the balls in the picture. Someone is carrying the third one, it might be tricky to find.
The Optional Item are decorating the Ferrero Rocher Chocolate balls with little wings to make them look like a golden snitch. Just like with the chocolate coins, I would recommend not spending too much time on this as they will unwrap those things faster than you can say "Quidditch." In fact, that might be a fun game to play. I have them linked below.https://amzn.to/3RDzoXb
Dig Deeper here will take some planning, which is why it's the added assignment. The process it will take to create a hide and seek game for someone else takes a lot of creativity. You could suggest them need to have a minimum of four clues leading to the hiding spot. Remind them to keep in mind who they are making this hide and seek for. If it's for their toddler sister it will look much different than if it's waiting for their dad when they get home. They could include a treasure map or just hidden clues around the house.
Chapter 12- The Christmas Chapter! We have a Christmas Harry Potter puzzle we do most years, I will be sure to pull it out, and link it below.https://amzn.to/467UJwa
The other optional item are Christmas Crackers, my kids have never used these before, so it will be a fun experience for them.https://amzn.to/3ZCoWky
Dig Deeper, we have another Dumbledore quote to add to the list.
Chapter 13- I created a word search for this chapter. I have 3 different versions, so make sure to only print the ones you want. One is the answer key. The other two are a versions with lines between each letter and one without. That might make more sense when looking at them. But I couldn't decide which was easier to use, so I put both options up.
Dig Deeper, I did not know that Nicolas Flamel was a real person in history! Now your kids will know too!
Chapter 14- The map activity will vary depending on the age of your kids. I have one with the names written on it, they could draw a dragon flying over with a line for it's journey. They could color in the countries that they will be flying over. Or if older, you could give them the blank map where they need to fill in the names of the countries. For the extra old kids, give them a blank piece of paper and have them draw a map of Europe themselves. Please be aware that if you want to use this map outline for a different project, it is not a full map of Europe.
Chapter 15- Nothing to add here other than I'm super excited about the roll the story activity! Knowing my kids, they will make several versions.
Chapter 16- Can I say that making that Mad Lib may have been the hardest activity I made? Goodness!
For the chess activity page, I have two versions because I was concerned that some people's printers may not want to print off the grey blocks. So I created one version without grayed in boxes with your printers in mind. Tell them I said, "You're welcome. I got you."
Dig Deeper can look different depending on if your student already knows chess or not. Learning a new game is always a good skill, especially one as complicated as chess. If they do already know it, they could research strategies, famous chess players, or the history of chess and write it in a report. You do you.
Chapter 17- We made it! First off, I purposely made the order of events with the correct options for first and last. I knew my kids would find a kick out of that, and really, it's the little things.
Now....the escape room. As this whole guide is meant to be a print and go, I tried to make these fun little puzzles. If the idea of 7 tasks seems like a lot,,,,skip it! I'll never know!
For the potions logic puzzle, I do have an answer key available. However, in the book, some of the clues reference the size of the bottles, which we cannot see clearly, despite what the poem says. So, I had to make an executive decision and just do a version of this logic puzzle that would work. You may find different options online, and that will be why some may look different.
And the second hardest activity sheet to make you ask? That gosh darn maze. I made the riddles myself, I hope you can find a chuckle out of them.
As for optional items, you could bring back the candy, I'm sure you won't be hearing complaints from your students. Maybe keep a few aside from the other chapter to save for this one?
Dig Deeper is one more quote from Dumbledore. But you know there will be more to come in the following books.
Conclusion Pages- I added a few questions here you can ask your students and made a few activity sheets as well.
Optional items are popcorn and the movie! https://amzn.to/3LELD1W
There you have it, the long-winded explanation as promised.
Come back for when I have book 2, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets literature guide done! Until then, Rachel
