After our good morning songs, we started right into our topic! Elephants.

Play Pretend: Be An Elephant

We began by talking about the special features of an elephant - their trunks, their feet, their ears and we acted out different elephant movements. 

These were: trumpet our nose, make our noises, flap our ears and swing our trunks to the floor

BOOK: Meet Miss Fancy by Irene Latham

This one is a picture book written by an Alabamian author that's loosely based on a real event. It's set in 1913 while the south had many segregation laws.

ACTION RHYME: A Big Grey Elephant

A big grey elephant walks around

Stomping, stomping, stomping the ground.

When it gets too hot, he'll flap his ears

And this cools him down from feet to rear.

His tail waggles, he feels so relaxed.

Time to eat, there's a perfect spot of grass.

His grey trunk reaches down to the floor. 

Swishing right, then left then right some more. 

He grabs some grass, brings it up to his mouth

And you know what he says?

Mmm Mmm Mmm that's yummy.

Alright, this may not be amazing or easy to memorize on the spot (I read it off a piece of paper and I'm the one who wrote it!) but the actions are fun to do!

BOOK: Strictly NO ELEPHANTS by Lisa Mantchev

QUESTION: If you could have any type of animal in the world for a pet, what animal would that be?

In Strictly NO ELEPHANTS, a little boy has a pet elephant and other children have other unique pets. This was the perfect opportunity to share what types of crazy pets our group would like to have!

SONG: The Elephant (Tune: The Mulberry Bush)

The elephant goes like this and that, this and that, this and that (walk heavily)

The elephant goes like this and that, cause he's so big and fat! (Puff up cheeks and stretch out arms)

He has no fingers and has no toes, e has no fingers and has no toes (wiggle fingers/toes)

He has no fingers and has no toes, but goodness gracious what a nose! (make trunk with arms at nose)

And those were all the elephant themed books and songs we did for this one! Happy Storytelling

 This one didn't turn out like I had envisioned. The concept was a set-up that made books look like they were the focus of an Instagram book photo challenge. 

One of the authors I follow on instagram, Chani Lynn Feener, creates the most inviting photo challenge pictures and those were my inspiration.

Unfortunately, my end result fell flat - that's just part of the game. 

If you're reading this, you're creative so take this idea and make it better! 

(But drop me a picture of your display!! I love this idea and want to know how to make it better!)

In celebration of the Hogwarts start of term (Sept 1) and the upcoming 20th anniversary of the Sorcerer's Stone, we set out some activities focusing on book 1!

Below are 4 different activities.

1. Sorting Hat

Put a tally mark next to what Hogwarts House you would be in.

2. Harry's School Supplies Scavenger Hunt

 Hmmm, is this picture clear? Scavenger Hunt prompt reads: 

It's time for Harry to leave for the Platform but Dudley has scattered Harry's things!! Can you find Harry's school supplies for his first year at Hogwarts?

(I know, Dudley steered clear of Harry in the days leading up to his departure and wouldn't have scattered Harry's school supplies... just go with it 😆😉)

Click Here for a link to a printable PDF version of the scavenger hunt! 

They're not colored - only black and white- because I didn't have time to add color to them. 

Inside the PDF is a copy of this checklist, but in case you need it, here's a picture of it. 

 

3. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Movie Bingo

There are 10 different bingo sheets to play as you watch the 1st movie. 

They could probably be done with other HP movies, but were made with the 1st movie in mind. 

Click here for a printable PDF of the 10 different bingo sheets!

 

 Here's an example of two of cards

 4. Neville and Trevor Path Game

 The prompt on this game says: 

Neville Longbottom has lost his toad, Trevor! Can you help reunite them? Make a path using the pieces inside Harry's school trunk!

 The pieces were squares of cardboard with lines drawn using white-out. 

To get stats for this, I drew a frog asking how many squares it took the kids to make their path.

 👆 Well, this picture isn't exactly what I had in mind but... 

 

And that's all. Have a brilliant Harry Potter party!

 

This was a temporary bulletin board and super easy to prepare.

This bulletin board used a cardboard fireplace purchased several Christmas's ago so the only prep work on my end was making envelopes to hang from the ceiling and finding pictures of the Dursley's to put in cardboard frames (which were props used previously in online videos). 

The envelopes are several different sizes- I thought if I used the smaller ones closer to the ceiling it would create an illusion that I needed but when it came time to hang them from the ceiling, there was no order. They could have all been the same size.

This is the template I made for my cards. I printed them off, cut them out, glued them together and trimmed the edges.