I ended last talking about how awesome it is to find one thing that you excel at. For Harry it was flying and becoming the first seeker to be a first year in a century! That must have been a great feeling compared to his previous experiences in life. I loved how he got an exception and was able to get the "Nimbus Two Thousand", also it was classic how Malfoy got so jealous after talking so much about being such a great flyer and etc. I also loved how excited Wood was about Harry, "The secret weapon". But also it showed a quality in Harry, he did not boast about it, I mean he did a little but not as much as say, Malfoy would have done I'm sure. Even from the get go you can tell that he is very good hearted.
Well the second half of the book is where the adventures really start to flow! There is the three headed dog, "Fluffy" what a name, who is closely associated with with Greek/Roman mythology, I believe his name is Cerberus, or at least one of them. I love how Hagrid has all of these crazy animals, he is the epitome of an animal lover!
One thing that might be an interesting topic of discussion would be to ask the students to think about having a family that does not care for you or even really acknowledge that you exist, although this could be a VERY touchy subject so it might be best to do in some other way, which alludes me at the moment. But you could even get the children to write down all the bad feelings that they have sometimes and talk about it. It would relate because of Harry and he expresses his feelings in his mind.
What is "Home", write a paragraph (or more depending on age group and time period) about what the word "Home" means you to. I love to hear that Harry finally has a place that he feels at home! What a magnificent feeling to finally have after 11 years. It only took 2 months for Harry to finally feel that he had a home that he was comfortable in and a family that loved and cared about him! I can't even begin to image how incredible it must have felt to have a "home" and a"family" after never knowing what it feels like!
I found it touching and ironic how after Ron had made Hermione cry all day that he (and Harry) saved her from the the mountain Troll. It just shows that no matter how you might act towards a person at one time, in a serious situation tendencies tend to change. It just shows that in times of need our true feelings come out in a strong force. And before all of this happened Harry and Ron tended to get pretty annoyed with Hermione and then after all of the happenings of the troll they seemed to become the best of friends! "There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other..." I love that quote! It is so true.
Oh and then there is Christmas! I hate Malfoy; if I haven't made that obvious yet, i guess I feel more sorry for him than dislike, but he makes fun of everyone that is having to stay over the break which I think is just very selfish. However, it does turn out to be the best christmas ever for Harry! Mrs. Weasly is so sweet and thoughtful for going to all the trouble to make Harry a "Weasly" sweater! He seemed so happy about it and I just feel like he is so thankful and appreciative for it! I would probably agree with the way Harry thought about wanting to take the invisibility cloak out by himself for the first time. It probably was a very special intense feeling to experience, considering it was his fathers who he never met. Also Hagrid makes a flute for him. And then, let us not forget, there is the INVISIBILITY cloak ! I mean just think how amazing that would be to have! And the fact that it belonged to his father. You could do a really funny and, pardon me but, cute activity. You could bring in a special piece of clothe and have it as sort of a "reward" or just fun thing to do, one child could wear it or use it once and they would get to be invisible to everyone else. Creating rules would be necessary to do, but you would have some reason that the clothe would be able to go around the class throughout the day.
Now for the mirror of Erised, I would love to be able to look into the mirror and see what would be before me. When I was reading the book I knew that Erised is desire backwards and the inscription is the same thing. It says "is how not your face but your hearts desire." I love the meaning behind this mirror! It can be taken so many ways. You could do essentially the same activity that we are doing in our class. If the class and students have blogs you could just get them to do a blog post about it (just like we are) or you could have the students write a paper about it and turn it into a writing/ drawing activity. I think it would be a crazy thing to see your family for the first time! I can't imagine how intense that would be. I think, for me, that it would be a really hard thing to have to go through, I would not really know how to handle it. I think Dumblerdore is one of the most brilliant men (at least in this fantasy world) and he knows exactly what is going on in Hogwarts. It is as if he has some kind of different sense to where he can tell what is going on, everywhere. He knew that if Harry kept going to the mirror that he would become consumed with thoughts of his family. He also knew exactly what to say to Harry to convince him that he didn't need to return the mirror or seek it out.
I remember the first time that I read this book that I just hated Snape, as I think a lot of people thought, but once you get to the end I had this kind of "awww" feeling. Although he probably did it so that he could feel like he had repaid Harry's dad for saving his life a long time ago. I also think that deep down he sees the potential in Harry to be a great wizard some day.
All in all I think that this is one of the most interesting books and I believe that it really grasps children's attention( and I have seen this). Even as an "adult" I still get great pleasure out of reading these books. I think children can take a lot of lessons out of this book if they are given a chance to. There are also a lot of things that children can look to in the book, things that they might be able to relate to. I think it is a shame and a sad thing if they are able to connect with the book in some of the horrible ways. All in all this book is pretty well rounded and a good read for anyone who enjoys things out of the ordinary...
1 comment:
I like how you talked a lot about seeing your family for the first time (from Harry's eyes) and how emotional that must be!
It is so crazy to think about!
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