You know it's a good day at work when it includes a round of Mario Kart and a game of Quidditch.

The Muggles even won.

As for the group that chose to be team Voldemort...they are either the coolest or most evil students I have. It's a fine line.

We actually played "quidditch" now in both of my 3rd-year classes, thanks to a section of the textbook in which Yuki, one of the characters, goes to London and gushes about her love for Harry Potter. "Harry is so cool, isn't he?"

I just loved being able to legitimately say "10 points for Slytherin", in English class. As well as asking them "What time will Snape go to bed tonight?" as a review question.

The game involved dividing the students into six teams and outlining three quidditch hoops on the blackboard. I asked the students a series of review questions to practice the grammar point, and after discussing with their team members, the first to raise their hand was called on to answer. If they were correct, they got a chance to throw a ball at the board in hopes of scoring on one of the hoops.

The game took a surprising twist when the golden snitch made an appearance after the final question was answered.


And in another character-themed review activity, Donkey Kong (me) pulled into the lead in Mario Kart thanks to pulling a star item card after trailing the whole game. Success.

This game is similar; teams choose a character, who moves forward on the track when they are able to successfully answer an English question. They roll the dice to determine the number of spaces, and also choose an item card which allows them to do any number of things, including roll again, move forward another space, send all the other players back 3, or cruise into first place (as in the case of Donkey Kong).

I think I have just as much fun preparing and playing these games as the students do.