Harry Potter Notebooking - Happy Birthday JK Rowling!
Sunday, July 1, 2012 at 2:33PM 
It's so exciting to be able to write about JK Rowling. You know, her birthday is July 31, and if you visit the iHomeschool Network you will see all kinds of birthday lessons for the month of July. It might be fun to go through these lessons with your children for some "summer schooling".
I have JK Rowling to thank for my daughter's love of reading. No matter your thoughts about the Harry Potter series, JK Rowling has inspired a GENERATION of children to read.
My children and I have worked quite hard to bring you a Harry and Friends Notebooking Pages download. Stick around until the end of the post for the link!
Let's kick off JK Rowling's birthday lesson with a little music, shall we? Here's Miss B playing "Hedwig's Theme" composed by John Williams.
About JK Rowling
I just write what I wanted to write. I write what amuses me. It's totally for myself.
~ JK Rowling
JK Rowling was born July 31, 1965. In short, she took a long road before she finished Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone in 1996. In fact, the publisher payed her a meager sum ($3,000) for the book, and encouraged her to use her initals instead of her first name so the book would appeal to male readers. I love this online biography of Rowling.
Today, JK Rowling is richer than the Queen of England, and continues to write. What an inspiration she is to young authors everywhere... an idea that was born on a train ride turns out to be a wildly successful series of books for ALL AGES.
Rowling Biographies for Children
Scholastic's Conversations With JK Rowling is a great resource. Miss B loved this book.
Who is JK Rowling? will also be released later this summer. We are fans of the "Who Was?" series and have already pre-ordered the Rowling book.
Additional Resources
We have been reading Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone aloud... discussing as we go. I want to recommend The Unofficial Harry Potter Vocabulary Builder. This book contains words from all of the books in the series, with definitions, parts of speech, and origins. As we read through the rest of the series, these will become supplemental spelling words for my children.
For more ideas and information about JK Rowling and teaching with Harry Potter you can visit my Harry Potter/JK Rowling Pinterest page. I'm continuing to pin as we delve more into the magical world of Harry Potter.
Harry and Friends Notebooking Pages
Whenever we approach a new study in our homeschool, I like to see if there are notebooking pages available. I had a hard time finding specific Harry Potter pages that fit our needs, so we set about creating them.
Harry and Friends Notebooking Pages was created specifically for my children. I never wanted to immerse myself in the world of Harry Potter. I had tried to read the first book when it first came out, and I have to admit I DID NOT LIKE IT.
My daughter became enthralled with Harry as she was leaving the public schools. In her first few months at home she read (and re-read) all of the books. She still reads them today. I think that loving Harry so much helped ease her transition from school to home.
Now that my son is nearly eight she wanted me to read them aloud to him. I agreed, thinking "maybe I'll give Harry Potter another chance."
I am so very glad I did. The sense of imagination, suspense, drama, and overall fantasy have captivated me. I'm so happy to share in this world with my children now.
Please enjoy these in your homeschool. If you use them and mention them in a post, I ask that you please link back to me. These pages (while a labor of love) took much time and effort.
Be sure to visit the iHomeschool Network to see the other Birthday Lessons for July!
