Story and photos by Dominic ’31
In “Muggles at Messing,” a Middle School Winter Term course, Ms. Bethany Kavanaugh the Middle School Librarian, teaches about studies at Hogwarts. “We get to be in ‘Harry Potter’s’ school,” says Maggie Sharp ’29 and Jen Salazar Estrada ’29. Ms. Kavanaugh says that she teaches her class, “Because there are so many students that like Harry Potter.” To start things out, seventh and eighth graders get a choice of plants to grow for Herbology. They grew umbrella plants, purple hearts, and zebra plants. They grew the plants in vials filled with water and hung them in slots on wooded slabs hanging from the window. The students also decorated plastic pots with stickers for the plants when they grew. Most of the plants grew pretty quickly and sprouted roots.
After Herbology, they painted wooden wands. Everyone knows that a witch or wizard can’t be who they are without a wand, so they made wands. “In Muggles at Messing we get to unleash our inner witches and wizards,” says Maggie.
The next day, Ms. Kavanaugh and Mrs. Andrea Ostlund, the Middle School Library Assistant, helped seventh and eighth graders create potions using foam balls, plastic fruits, and slime. “We have slime and more add-ins than you could possibly ever figure out,” said Ms. Kavanaugh. The potion makers opened up the slime containers and mixed in glitter, foam balls, and other things. When they finished, they had to create a name and an effect for their potion. As Slytherin and Ravenclaw made potions, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff played Hogwarts Bingo. “Butterbeer!” says Ms. Kavanaugh. Bingo is a way for the houses to try to earn house points. At the last round, Ms. Kavanaugh turns bingo into a blackout round. When Gryffindor takes the win, Ms. Kavanaugh adds points to the Gryffindor house cup.
After that, they learned about the Care of Magical Creatures. Using Canva, they designed a page for a guide to Magical Creatures. “We picked a magical creature and wrote down stuff about it,” said Tarik Yagci ’29. The kids looked up pictures on Google and pasted them on their page. Then they typed info about their creatures and customized it. Ms. Kavanaugh also says that the point of the class is, “Just to have fun while learning about digital design.”
To start off Quidditch, Ms. Kavanaugh presented a brief video about the game of Quidditch. Then the seventh and eighth graders played a Kahoot, or trivia game, to earn their team Seeker a clue. To find the Snitch, the Houses had to earn clues for a book call number, which was taped to the inside of the book’s cover. Slytherin ended up taking the win.
As Mason Chambers ’28 says, “I think it is very good. I like it because we get to interact with peers and learn about Harry Potter.” Kayra Metan ’29 agrees, saying, “I think it’s cool.” Ms. Kavanagh joins in, saying that she enjoys teaching. “I do, it’s very fun.”
