I had these grand ideas for this month. I was going to design a whole unit for Harry Potter, and create a lesson for each of the classes Harry takes. I even got started with these lessons…………. with Care of Magical Creatures.
They happily created their own animals consulting Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You (which the kids have not so subtly been hinting we should get a copy of, rather than the library one).
We also wrote about famous wizards for History of Magic, but since the kids all used their own names in the wizards I can’t share those with you. Needless to say their wizards performed mighty deeds and duels.
As we were listening to the third book on audio (if you haven’t listened to them, DO), I came up with my amazing brainstorm, and saved a day that was starting out horridly.
So a happy afternoon was spent painting peg dolls, followed by another happy afternoon starting the paint job on Hogwarts.
These are obviously my Harry Potter peg doll versions, because I wanted to show mine off, I’ll spotlight the kids in a second. I got inspiration for them from these two sites: Harry Potter peg dolls etsy set, and Harry Potter peg dolls Craftster forum.
I made peg dolls for the various Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers, but they’re not quite done, they need some final details. The kids made the owls. I also have a McGonagall, but in all the play they’ve gotten her hair bun was knocked off, and I need to glue it back on.
Then we set to painting Hogwarts. This project is still in full force. The kids have each painted two rooms so far, and they’ve cut out loads of stuff to glue onto the walls. (I got a lot of inspiration for the castle and dolls from this Harry Potter peg dolls thread on Craftster).
And then they played, and played, and played, and played a whole bunch more. I think since we started this project on Thursday, they’ve played with this for about 15 hours, at least. That’s a lot of play time in 4 days.
For more information on how we paint peg dolls check out my painting peg dolls post.
For more Harry Potter peg dolls or some fun lessons or acitvities check out my Harry Potter pinterest board.
I love your peg dolls! I can’t decide if Hagrid or Dumbledore is my favourite!
Just fyi, I actually wrote a month-long HP unit study with links last year; I can email it to you if you’d like – just let me know.
Oh my goodness I love this! What a fun craft and toy you guys created!
Seriously! You made them all in an afternoon?? They’re great! It took me 2 weeks (of sporadic 30+ minutes) to make our Star Wars peg people! Though part of that was the layers of white paint…I spent a lot of time just trying to draw with pencil on the silly things!
It really helped me that I wasn’t painting anything white, and so there wasn’t layers and layers of paint to use…….
Definitely!
I love the peg doll idea! We haven’t made peg dolls before…it would be a great way to re-enact the story or use for narration!
Yes, and the over-achiever in me loves the permanence of the peg dolls.
What cute little Harry Potter dolls. Looks like a great time!
This is so cool!! I wanna be in your homeschool class!! haha Thanks for this suggestion!!
OMGsh how adorable are those peg dolls! I love how intensely the children are concentrating 🙂
Very fun! Emma got books one and two from the library on Saturday – and already finished them.
Wow! I’ve told my boys they can read (for themselves) book 4 when they are able to read it on their own. There’s some days that’s a big encouragement to work on their reading……