This Harry Potter crest activity teaches your child how to introspect, dive deep, and give oneself some self-affirmation and love, in a fun and magical way!
We finally reached the Harry Potter stage in our homeschooling and I couldn’t be more excited! What a fun way to share a piece of my childhood, and magic with my kiddo. I feel like I have waited for this moment for so long!
One of the most discussed topics in the Harry Potter world is house placement. There are even multiple online personality quizzes, such as this one, that will place you in a house depending on what answers you give it.
Make sure you scroll to the bottom to grab the free printable for the crest and house badge to adorn it. Your kids will have so much fun finding their favorite things about themselves!
How to Make the Harry Potter House Crest
After you have introduced the houses, and the characteristics of the houses, and talked about how they are more like categories than a hierarchy, you can begin discussing each person’s own personal, general characteristics and traits and favorite things about each other.
Asking your child “What are your favorite things about yourself”, “What is something that you love that you do?” or “What makes you different than everyone else”, are great ways to get your child introspecting and coming up with what goes on their crest.
Supplies:
- Cut out Crest Template Printable (1 for each child – Get it below!)
- Cut out house symbol Printable (Optional – Included in the printable)
- Colored Construction paper to match the house for the child
- Coloring/Drawing Supplies
- Glue Stick
Instructions:
1. Invite each child to think of and draw or write four of their own favorite things about themselves. Each favorite thing goes in individual quadrants.
2. Make sure to allow time to color it in and really make it their own!
3. If your child is open to it, you can talk about each item they put on there. Having them say their favorite things about themselves out loud in addition to writing them helps it stick and gives them more confidence and belief in the thing they wrote about themselves.
4. Glue the crest to the colored construction paper. You can even make the color of the construction paper match the color of the house they were (or chose to be) placed in.
Red/Maroon and Gold for Gryffindor, Green and Silver for Slytherin, Yellow and Black for Hufflepuff, and Blue and Bronze for Ravenclaw. Or choose their favorite color.
5. Glue the house symbol on top, in the middle of the crest to represent the house they are in. Gryffindor = Lion; Slytherin = Snake; Hufflepuff = Badger; Ravenclaw = Eagle.
6. This part is optional and totally up to the child, but you can add their name at the top also.
7. Display it somewhere your kiddo can see it often and remind themselves of how awesome they are, frequently!
If your kiddos are enjoying learning about themselves while exploring the magical world of witchcraft & wizardry, and they want more, you can grab all 8 of our Harry Potter mindfulness printables for just $1.29!
(If you just want the free file, feel free to go to the individual posts to grab to grab them. It will ask you to enter in your information for each activity printable, but don’t worry, I won’t send you duplicate emails.)
Social Emotional Learning Behind the Harry Potter Crest Activity
When talking about the Hogwarts House placement, it is almost guaranteed that a discussion on all the characteristics and traits that tend to go with each house, will come up too, and it unfortunately usually doesn’t fare well for Slytherin.
It is really important to talk about the houses not as a hierarchy, but more as categories. Even more, the categories are equal. It’s like saying what you will eat for breakfast. Just because you are in the mood for eggs, doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with pancakes. It just doesn’t fit right now. And that is ok!
So, discussing that just because someone is in, say, Slytherin, it doesn’t mean they are ‘bad’. Or just because someone is in Gryffindor, doesn’t mean they always have to be brave and fearless. Every house produces great wizards.
How you show up in the world is determined by what is in your heart and in your actions, not which Hogwarts house you belong to…or which wizards came from that house before you.
Check out these other Harry Potter Social Emotional Learning Activities:
- Harry Potter Remembrall Activity – Positive Mindset
- Harry Potter Sorting Hat Activity – Character Building / Self Acceptance
- Harry Potter Transfiguration Activity – Flexible Thinking & Growth Mindset
- Harry Potter Boggart Activity – Facing Fear & Defeating Worry
- Harry Potter Mirror of Erised Activity – Achieving Goals / Tenacity
- Harry Potter Marauder’s Map Activity – Self Care / Authenticity / Safety
- Harry Potter Defeat Voldemort Activity – Confidence / Defeating Fear