Thank You!

Thank you for a great summer school kiddos! Hope you have a great last day.

All of the photos have been uploaded, so click on the link to the left for the flickr galleries and download your favorites for free.

Day Fifteen

Well, our little wizards were hard at work today! Many of them were working on their character acrostic poems. I read a few doozies! Owl Mail continues to be very popular, with students getting very interesting responses to their letters.

What's that on the right, you ask? Ah, that's the lemon-y frosting we made for the tea biscuits. With real lemon zest! You see, after Red escaped from the BBW (Big Bad Wolf), she and Grandma shared tea and biscuits with Mr. Woodcutter.

Week Three!

Sorry to have been so behind on my blogging! It's been a busy week for everyone, so just a quick wrap-up before we head into the final week.

The first years at Hogwarts wrote letters and sent them by owl for the first time, looked into the Mirror of Erised to see their dearest desires, and made synthetic troll boogers. Some of the first years helped Sydney D. to celebrate her 7th birthday! By the way, a certain professor we all know and love was spotted watching Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince in the same theatre as Sydney D. and Ian M. on Friday!

Second years had an equally thrilling week in Care of Magical Creatures. We just completed a Dragonology unit. Each student wrote a letter to Dr. Drake requesting to adopt a dragon egg. Once the requests were approved, Dr. Drake sent the eggs to me to be distributed. Students enchanted each egg to become the type of dragon they hope to raise. Will it be a Hungarian Horntail? A Norwegian Ridgeback? A Chinese Fireball? Only time will tell, as it takes 3 years on hot coals to hatch a dragon egg!

Finally, Book Cooks have been slaving away over hot griddles and burners to learn delicious dishes to share with their families! We enjoyed recipes such as: Green Eggs and Ham from the Dr. Seuss classic, Mudburgers from James and the Giant Peach, Hoecakes from George Washington's Breakfast, Stone Soup, and Fried Rice from Everybody Cooks Rice.

Upcoming Harry Potter Events

With the latest film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, coming out this week, there are a number of events wizards could attend. Here are just a few (all free):

Meet director David Heyman
Apple Store @ Third Street Promenade
July 13, 2009 (7PM)

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Screening
Altadena Public Library
July 14, 2009 (6:30PM)
Refreshments and Raffle

Harry Potter/Mugglenet Event
San Marino Toy and Book
July 15, 2009 (1:30-4:30PM)

Harry Potter Reading Group
Vroman's Bookstore @ Pasadena
July 20, 2009 (3PM)
Ages 9-14 to discuss the Half-Blood Prince

Day Nine

On Friday, first years learned to brew a lovely plant-growing potion, while second years celebrated Sir Nicholas' Deathday Party with some pumpkin muffins and butterbeer (much better than what was actually being served at the party!).

The chefs of Book Cooks whipped up (literally!) a delicious chocolate buttercream frosting for their thundercakes. Ask them what the chocolate cake's secret ingredient is!

Day 7 & 8

First years have been busying themselves with their Chocolate Frog Famous Wizard cards lately, doing research on various famous wizards.

Second year students worked on their herbology by collecting samples and making magical botanical prints.

The chefs of Rm. 8 made cinnamon apples (Ten Apples Up on Top by Dr. Seuss) and Strega Nona pasta (inspired by the book by Tomie de Paola).

Day Six

At Hogwarts, now that our wands are ready, we got a chance to practice some charms. Second years helped to make new pygmy puffs for the Weasleys' joke shop, but it turns out they didn't need so many afterall and the students got to take home their new pets.

In Book Cooks, we read Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, which is going to be a movie soon. We cooked up a delicious marinara sauce to go with our alphabet pasta and meatballs. Mmmm...

Day Five

Oh dear, we have had an infestation of puffskeins! Fortunately, these little guys are harmless. They're even a little cute, and I hear they purr like kittens. Now that the wands are finished, we can look forward to practicing our spells.

In Book Cooks, we worked on mashing skills as we made a delicious black bean dip. Inspired by the story Jack and the Beanstalk, students enjoyed the dip with some chips and a bit of shredded cheddar. Put the kids to work making the dip at your next party!

Day Four

Pictures are up on flickr for Days Three and Four. In Hogwarts, we just began painting our wands. They are really starting to turn out. Our little Book Cooks chefs had fun making Huff Puffs from Mr. Wolf and the Three Bears! Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July holiday!

Day Three

I forgot to bring my camera home, so no new pictures today, but I'll have them up over the weekend. Remember that Friday is a school holiday, so there are NO classes on July 3rd.

Mr. Ollivander stopped by this morning, but was unable to stay and fit students with new wands. Fortunately, he left us a supply of wand blanks, but they had been charmed to look like ordinary paintbrushes (too many muggles around!). We are in the process of sculpting our own, though, which should do just fine for practicing some charms and other spells.

In Book Cooks, we read the adorable Mo Willems story The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog. Afterward, the students chopped vegetables to make chili for our delicious chili dogs!

Day Two

Today in Hogwarts we studied the colorful vocabulary used in the books! Don't be surprised if your favorite little wizard utters a sentence such as, "Blimey that smarmy bloke has a jaunty way of wearing his robes!" Mr. Ollivander is expected to stop by tomorrow to fit everyone with wands.

In Book Cooks, we read a poem from James and the Giant Peach and then made some egg salad, using stink bugs' eggs of course! Some of us even washed it down with peach juice.

Day One

Did you manage to catch the train at Platform 9 3/4?

Did you find out what's really inside popcorn?

Hogwarts welcomed students for Years One and Two. Four students were named Prefects of their respective Houses: Cade, Archer, Maximum, and Adam.

In Book Cooks, we read The Popcorn Book by Tomie de Paola and popped up a few batches! We first tried using the new-fangled popcorn maker seen in the picture above. As it turns out, a regular old saucepan worked even better!

Summer School Countdown!

Hey Kids!

It’s just 36 days until the start of SPEF Summer School! I am looking forward to welcoming students to Hogwarts for Year 1 and Year 2, as well as to Book Cooks Favorites. Check out my flickr gallery for pictures of last year’s classes, or cycle through this blog to read more about them. Haven’t registered yet? Go to the SPEF website for more information. Links to all these sites are located on the left side of this blog. See you soon!

Miss Cong

Harry Potter Widget