Day 1 of your adventure begins here!  

You were instructed to go to a bed and breakfast named the 

Unicorn, near Paddington Station in London, England, to spend the night before your adventure officially begins.  

You wake up wondering what is going to happen next!  As soon as the thought crosses your mind, you realize you are not alone.  Harry and Hagrid are standing at the end of your bed and you wonder how on earth they got there!  "Hurry up, Lazybones!" Harry urges, "We've got shopping to do before you can possibly  go to Hogwarts!"

Oh, joy, your heart pounds as you realize you are on your way!

Whenever you see a green box in this Webquest, it means that there is something there you will need to do.  It may be an activity or a written assignment.  Please do each activity or assignment in the order in which they appear on the page.

• Reread Chapter 5, Diagon Alley from the book Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

• Start a new Microsoft Word Document by saving it as "(your name's) Journal of My Week at Hogwarts."   If you have questions about what some of the buttons mean, feel free to look at a short  tutorial by clicking on the button below. 

• Label your first entry with "Saturday" and then include today's date. 

• In your Journal for Saturday be sure to use each of the following words at least one time.  You may  "copy" and "paste" them into your document from here.  Please make them orange in your document:  apothecary, babble, billowing, escalator, gleamed, hurtled, minuscule, peculiar, pewter, phials, quivered, ravine, scrambled, stalactites, stalagmites

You walk  from The Unicorn to Paddington Station.

You get on a subway train (Tube) and ride to a station called Charing Cross. 

You sincerely wonder what "Mind the Gap!" means.  

As if reading your mind, Harry points down to the space between the subway car and the station platform.  THAT must be "The Gap!"  Yes, you can see why you need to be careful as you get off the train.

You walk out of the station and down the street turning onto smaller and smaller lanes until you are in a narrow winding walkway, behind a pub called "The Leaky  Cauldron."   You hold your breath as you watch Hagrid begin tapping the bricks, not daring to hope what you are about to see!

As you stand there, spellbound,  Hagrid taps the bricks and the wall shifts to reveal the secret street.  Yes!  Your wish has come true!  You realize you are going to have a chance to buy everything you need for your week at Hogwarts in the most secret, enchanted, and mysterious place imaginable, Diagon Alley! 

• When you are at Diagon Alley, you'll need to stop at Gringott's Bank first.  You'll be "riding the rails" to get some money to spend on cauldrons, robes, wands, and the like.  You are going to need to withdraw $500.00  in Galleons from Harry's secret vault if you are going to be able to shop for your school supplies.  Good Luck!  Be prepared, the ride is going to be wild!  You'll have three chances to get your Galleons.  After that, Hagrid and Harry will do it for you so that you can get on with the many other adventures the day will bring.

(Use the "Back" button on your browser to bring you back to this page when you are done at Gringott's.)

• Tell about your adventure in Gringott's Vault in your Journal.  Tell what happened to you as you tried to make it to the vault.  How did you feel as you careened down the tracks?  How did you feel as you crashed into the abyss?  How did you feel as you realized you were protected by a charm and could not actually be hurt?

When you have your money, you may explore all the other shops in Diagon Alley.  

• Look for places to buy the items on your list.   As you shop, record each purchase and price  so you can include it in the Excel spreadsheet you will make and save in your folder.  (See next bullet down for more specific directions.)  Remember, robe prices vary, 25 to 40 Galleons.  If you spend more than 35 Galleons, tell about the special features your robes possess that made them worth the extra Galleons.  A hat will cost from 15-25 Galleons, and the dragon-hide gloves will set you back 10 -15 Galleons.  Your books are 15 - 25 Galleons each.  Itemize your purchases and give the exact price for each. (Use your imagination here.) 

• In addition to the items on the list above, you'll walk through the market and buy the following:

1. One medium-sized cauldron at the Cauldron Shop - 35 Galleons
2. One wand at Olivanders - Makers of Fine Wands Since 382 B.C - 53 Galleons.  You'll be tested by Mr. Olivander for the perfect wand for you.  Make sure you jot down the wand make and type.  Also jot down any spells you cast in his shop and what they mean.
3. Some ingredients for making potions and spells at the Apothocary - You tell which ones you buy - don't spend more than 40 Galleons.
4. You'll also need to get something to mark a book with at Flourish and Blotts.  "Take a picture"  by right clicking on the bookmarks and coloring sheets  you like., and choosing the copy command.  Each picture is a purchase and you spend 8 Galleons for each item.  You can paste the pictures directly into your Journal, or you can use the command to save the images in your folder.   
5. A bag of candy at Bertie Botts'  Beans - 7 Galleons for a small bag, 10 Galleons for a medium bag, and 15 Galleons for a Jumbo!  Jot down 3 flavors that look scrumptious, and three that look suspicious or downright horrible.  Journal  all about what happened and how you enjoyed or didn't enjoy  when you tasted each one. 

(Use the "Back" button on your browser to bring you back to this page when you are done at Diagon Alley. Bertie Botts', and Olivander's.)

• Write a short story in your Journal for the day about one particular  flavor of  bean and what happened when Harry or Hagrid ate it while you were riding the Tube to get to Charring Cross Station and Diagon Alley this morning.

• At the end of this  day you will have a spreadsheet that shows all your expenses!  You'll need to list items bought, prices, and a total.  You DO NOT have to go though the whole tutorial.  If you are brave, clever, or both, you may be able to look at the example and figure out how to do what you need to do by experimenting a little.  If you are unsure, or if you don't like to explore on your own, then you should follow the directions for the "ice cream" exercise.  After you've made the "ice cream" spreadsheet, you can simply change the categories, headings, titles, and amounts so that it becomes your own record of shopping at Diagon Alley.

• After you are done with your purchases and making your spreadsheet in Excel, you'll need to write about all your adventures after you got your money from the vault at  Gringott's.  You can add on to your journal page where you left off after writing about your adventures in Gringott's Vault.  Be sure you describe every thing you saw and did on your journey to Diagon Alley.  Remember  You'll only have these words to remind yourself later about how things looked, sounded, tasted, felt, and smelled, as well as EVERYTHING  you did on your first day. You are welcome to go back to Diagon Alley Walkthrough and Bertie Bott's if you need to get ideas.  You may NOT visit any other web page at that site until you are finished with your journal for Saturday.

• Rate your day using this handy rating rubric!  Run off one copy of the following document: Using a pencil or black pen, rate your day.  Don’t forget to thoughtfully write your reflections! Then, save your document in the required location, or print it off, whichever your teacher has indicated, and hand in your rubric.  Don’t forget your name!