House Sorting and Wand Making

At the first meeting, we did two activities: sorting club members into houses and making wands.

Students needed to take the Sorting Hat quiz before coming to the first meeting. As Professor Fizzlepott, I welcomed club members to Hogwarts-West Campus. (I created a whole backstory for my character based off real-life experiences. For example, Fizzlepott came about because although I loved chemistry and understood how all of the labs were supposed to turn out, I was always the last to leave the lab due to some error made on my part. Therefore, Professor Fizzlepott is so named because although she would love to be a Potions Master, she is not since she always manages to do some part of it incorrectly. She once tried to make a boil-reducing potion but instead of stirring it three times clockwise, she stirred it counter-clockwise. The poor recipient of the potion did not have his boils taken away but instead was full of volcanic puss explosions all over his body!)

I then read aloud the Sorting Hat Song and reminded them that the Sorting Hat always takes into account their choices as long as they state them before the Sorting Hat makes its pronouncement.

While students were being sorted into houses and receiving their house cards, the rest were making their wands. We decided to use dowel sticks, instant paper mache, and brown acrylic paint. These came out much better than expected. Students were also given wand permits to fill out at this time.