Explore Harry Potter’s World Online

I feel like this post should just say go check out the Arts and Culture section of Google right now and any time you or your kids need a break because there is so much cool stuff related to the arts there.

But specifically today I want to note that the Harry Potter: A History of Magic exhibit from the British Museum is available to view there.

You can learn about the exhibit, the history of Harry Potter, see Jim Kay’s original illustrations for the books, learn about the history of magic and more.

There are even “virtual classes” in everything from Herbology to Divination, which include virtual tours of the exhibit and more information on those particular fields.

This is one kids and adults alike are sure to enjoy. Maybe have a Harry Potter day and make some crafts and food, do a reading or watch one of the movies, too.

[Photo: Google Arts and Culture via the British Museum.]

With little kids especially, linking learning to physical activity really does help them learn. Movement can help kids focus, and it just keeps them from sitting still all day, which isn’t good for anyone.

The good news is lots of different learning activities can be adopted to get kids moving while they learn, so let’s look at some math and number activities that use gross motor skills.

Probably the most obvious thing would be hopscotch, which helps kids count while they hop. You can also mix up the numbers, do skip counting with the numbers, give kids a simple math problem and have them hop to the correct answer, and on and on.

This number hop game from Gift of Curiosity is a more chaotic version, with number flash cards on the floor that kids can hop, skip or jump to as you call them out (this one is more for individual number identification than counting). It’s a great indoor option if it’s too hot, cold or rainy out to do traditional hopscotch, too.

This painter’s tape number line idea from Days with Grey doesn’t involve quite as much movement, but kids can move around while they place things on the number line and work on learning about one to one correspondence. In the blog post they use shoes, but you can count anything you’ve got handy. (Be warned when I visited this website had an ad that continually took up the whole page, but you can get the idea pretty quickly.)

One of the important tasks of learning numbers is learning a parent’s phone number just in case it’s ever needed, or how to dial 911 in case on an emergency. Teaching Mama has a great way to practice telephone numbers and get some movement in with a giant telephone keypad made out of paper plates. You can also use this for counting practice, but it’s a great idea for learning phone numbers, too.

Have you read?

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