Saturday, January 14, 2012

Harry Potter Camp - Day 6 - Potions Class

I have a lot of friends who are HUGE Snape fans.  As for me, I am a fan of his love for Lily, but am pretty sure that he would whacked Dumbledore either way.  My opinion: If Voldemort had never gone after Lily (James and Harry, sure, just not Lily), Snape would have been by his side to the bitter end.  Ladies, moral of the story?: Be nice to the gross kids.  One day, you may need them to protect your kids.  Anyway, I put the link on the title of this post specifically for my Snape-loving friends.  Moving on.

Day 6 was one of the Students' Choice Award winners.  You'll have to stay tuned in to find out what the other one was.  I can't say that I blame my kids for picking this one; I would have too.  Considering the link and the title at the top of the page, you should know what class it was by now, but just in case, let me put it big and bold for you here:

Day 6 = Potions!

I had some really good things planned for them from the getgo.

Ever since I saw the cool milk experiment that I posted as a title link at the very beginning of this blog, I've been looking for an excuse to do it with some kids, so I was thrilled to throw that in here.  My friend Nick helped me dub it the "Pensieve,"which was genius.  (Don't the swirls in the Pensieve look like the ones in the milk?!)  The kids varied between thinking this was really cool and thinking it as really dirty, depending on how their colors ended up mixing.  Personally, I just enjoyed watching their faces turn from curiosity to shock as they added the dish soap.


Unfortunately, the Slytherins refused to stop talking while I was talking, so, as per the rules contract they signed, I had to make them write the rule 20 times, and the 30 times added to that (2nd and 3rd offense). There was a little case of a co-teacher undermining attempt, but I help my ground (even though I wanted to make them write lines just about as much as they wanted to write them), and, as a result, I didn't have to give out lines any more for the rest of camp.  Thank the good L-rd for that!

Because of the talking, however, the second experiment ended up running wayyyyy past time to go home, but it was such a cool one that I wasn't about to let it slip past us, because we were making homemade ice cream!  Turns out, milk, vanilla, and sugar in a little ziplock, surrounded by ice and salt in a big ziplock, while being shaken furiously for ten minutes will produce ice cream!  I tell you what, this is one thing that I'm excited to do with my future kids.

I made them do their shaking in the bathroom, as I did the smart thing and practiced at home, thus finding that the inner ziplock had a habit of leaking a lot if not closed perfectly.

I like this photo a lot.  I had the kids cut the corner of their ziplocks and eat the ice cream in such a way that would virtually prevent spills.  They were all big fans, and THAT, my friends, is why this lesson won the Students' Choice Award for favorite lesson. :)  By the way, I've been talking about that award, but it's entirely imaginary.  This is just the lesson that the most kids said they liked the best.
Now get out there and make some ice cream.  I hear Bill and Fleur want to have some at their wedding.

<3

2 comments:

  1. I will be teaching at a summer camp soon. I like the idea of making ice cream as a poison. Is there a recipe?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You can use this recipe: http://crafts.kaboose.com/ice-cream-in-a-bag.html/

      I just had the kids buy a small carton of milk, like what they get at school normally, and use that for their milk - it's even better when they get different flavors. Rename your other ingredients, and put them in other containers (various glass jars work great) that you mark with those names. Also, I just used table salt instead of rock salt. It worked fine.

      Remember to have the kids seal the inner bag extremely well. You'll probably want them to shake outside or in a bathroom.

      Good luck!

      Delete