hogwarts magical studies: day eight
Today was Divination, which I thought would be pretty tricky and actually was one of the classes I've worried about the most, since fortune-telling doesn't mix well with some religions. No one seemed upset about anything else I've done, though, so I figured what the hell. I brought in a crystal ball and a bunch of tea bags, since today I set out to do tea leaf reading with the children. Also I brought in a list of what various symbols meant.
Day Eight: Divination
Doesn't that tea look delicious? I basically opened up the bag and put it in a cup of hot water for each child to dispose of and then swirl the remaining tea leaves/tea around for their readings. I actually told the children to pour the tea down the drain, but one girl looked at me sadly and asked: "Do we have to?" so I said they could all drink the stuff if they wanted. To their credit, at least half the class went for it. The girl was the only one who finished it and wanted more, though. She had this hilarious tea residue mustache afterwards, too.
The first thing I did was talk about the different kinds of divination, pulling out my crystal ball and showing it to them. (On that note, what the hell is a fushigi? Aside from meaning mysterious in Japanese? I pulled it out and all the kids yelled 'fushigi', it was bizarre.) Then I went to the kitchen to heat up the water and gave them all multicolored pieces of paper to write a fortune on, like: 'you will find unforeseen happiness' and 'you will have a zebra as a pet'. They stuffed these in the sorting hat and collected their tea for reading.
The tea leaf reading was hilarious. There were one or two kids with no imagination, of course, who couldn't see anything no matter how hard they tried. I told them they didn't have the 'eye' for it, but they would get passing grades anyway. The others saw everything from octopus to flying cars to shark teeth in theirs, and I had a lot of fun translating the mysterious messages in the tea cups for them.
After that, they all pulled a fortune out of the sorting hat and exclaimed over whatever it was they got, and I told their future by looking at the crystal ball and saying: 'I see an unfortunate mishap in the kitchen' and 'I see that your dad has to deal with the snow'. Fun times all around!
Tomorrow, our final class, Transfiguration!
Day Eight: Divination
Doesn't that tea look delicious? I basically opened up the bag and put it in a cup of hot water for each child to dispose of and then swirl the remaining tea leaves/tea around for their readings. I actually told the children to pour the tea down the drain, but one girl looked at me sadly and asked: "Do we have to?" so I said they could all drink the stuff if they wanted. To their credit, at least half the class went for it. The girl was the only one who finished it and wanted more, though. She had this hilarious tea residue mustache afterwards, too.
The first thing I did was talk about the different kinds of divination, pulling out my crystal ball and showing it to them. (On that note, what the hell is a fushigi? Aside from meaning mysterious in Japanese? I pulled it out and all the kids yelled 'fushigi', it was bizarre.) Then I went to the kitchen to heat up the water and gave them all multicolored pieces of paper to write a fortune on, like: 'you will find unforeseen happiness' and 'you will have a zebra as a pet'. They stuffed these in the sorting hat and collected their tea for reading.
The tea leaf reading was hilarious. There were one or two kids with no imagination, of course, who couldn't see anything no matter how hard they tried. I told them they didn't have the 'eye' for it, but they would get passing grades anyway. The others saw everything from octopus to flying cars to shark teeth in theirs, and I had a lot of fun translating the mysterious messages in the tea cups for them.
After that, they all pulled a fortune out of the sorting hat and exclaimed over whatever it was they got, and I told their future by looking at the crystal ball and saying: 'I see an unfortunate mishap in the kitchen' and 'I see that your dad has to deal with the snow'. Fun times all around!
Tomorrow, our final class, Transfiguration!