Amazing Harry Potter Classroom

Tressa Bargella is a 3rd grade teacher in the United States and a HUGE Harry Potter fan! She took her love of everyone’s favorite wizard and brought it into the classroom. She thought of everything! The level of detail in this classroom theme is outstanding. I had many questions for Tressa about her Harry Potter themed Classroom and she did a beautiful job of answering them. So I’m going to share her answers to my questions along with pictures of her classroom.

Read on to Step Inside Tressa’s Harry Potter themed classroom:

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At the end of this article you will find links to items featured in this classroom as well as other items that could be incorporated into a Harry Potter themed classroom.

Could you imagine being a kid on the first day of school and this was your classroom! Filled with Harry Potter classroom decor. How exciting for her students.

Tressa Bargella taught Kindergarten for 13 years and is in her second year of teaching 3rd grade. I asked her what the hardest part was when putting this classroom together. Her response:

“The hardest part probably was just juggling time. I literally don’t sleep lol. Somewhere along the line I did notice that someone commented on one of my posts and said, ‘WOW, she must have nothing else to do!’ I had to chuckle because honestly I feel like I am involved in everything. I have 3 kids, I coach full time and I am also on several voluntary committees. I am super involved in my kids life regarding their activities and extracurriculars also, so probably my biggest struggle is making it all work and managing my time”

I often have a lot of fun getting my classroom ready for a new year so I asked Tressa what the most fun part was of creating this Harry Potter themed classroom. Her response:

“The most fun part was literally all of it! Once I started, I just couldn’t stop! I LOVE to craft and DIY projects so I had an absolute blast getting everything ready and putting it all together!”

The one thing I was really curious about was how Tressa would be incorporating the Harry Potter theme into the everyday happenings of her classroom. Her response details the many ways that she is sticking with the theme and how she will get her students involved (I wish I could be a student in her classroom).

“The parents are aware of my classroom theme prior to the start of the school year because about the second week of August I send all of the students individual, personalized Hogwarts acceptance letters. I bought parchment paper and envelopes and created a acceptance letter specific to my classroom and included a 9 3/4 train ticket to board the Hogwarts express. I even melt hot wax and use a Hogwart’s stamper to seal the envelope so it looks official. Parents came in with their students for meet the teacher orientation and they were all so excited. The best part is that my students WANT to be there!”

“On the very first day, they receive their wands and they are ‘sorted’ into their ‘houses’. I have a Sorting Hat and I have pre-recorded sound bites of the Sorting Hat talking, on my phone. I connect the phone through Bluetooth to the system in my classroom and when my kids come up individually to put the hat on, I choose where I want them to go! I also feel that my behavior issues are at a minimum because there is so much positive reinforcement for them to try to be the best they can be. Each ‘House’ competes against each other for the quarterly ‘House Cup’ “.

“I was always one who thought that having a theme in the classroom to tie everything together was so important. I am a lover of all things Harry Potter and it seemed almost perfect to transform my room around it since now I had an older, age appropriate group. I also felt it was the perfect age group to introduce them to Harry Potter since most kids at this age are not really familiar with it.”

“I have had a couple of people ask me what I do if I have a child that doesn’t like Harry Potter. The books and movies have been around for 20 years, so I feel like at this age level, all of the students can at least identify with him…but beyond that, I really never had any students that have in having already read any of the books. None of them had been exposed to it enough to determine if it interests them or not. In my opinion it was the perfect theme to tie in not only to academics but also social and personal growth as well as life lessons. Bravery, loyalty, friendships, and personal growth ideals are on every page. Yes, the magical aspect is intriguing and I do think it piques the curiosity of my students, however, Harry Potter is also so relatable to them. He struggles with many of the same issues that they do at this age.”

“It would be difficult for me to estimate cost or time, really. Officially, we cannot get into our classrooms until August, however, a lot of items in my room I made myself so I spent a good portion of the summer crafting at home and creating things on the computer. Each day, my children would be outside swimming and I would be out there on my deck putting together whatever crazy new idea I had and the joke would be, ‘what is mom making today?’ Once August came, I spent the majority of the last few weeks of summer inside the walls of my classroom….some 12 hour days. Just August alone I had probably spent more than 70 hours there. Many nights I left with the night maintenance at 11 p.m. As for cost, I would be lying if I said that I didn’t spend a significant amount on my room, however,  I was constantly searching for discounted items. Although Amazon Prime is my best friend, I frequented yard sales, flea markets, thrift stores and often Facebook Marketplace. If there was something specific that I was looking for and having a hard time finding, I would put up an occasional post on Facebook…It’s incredible what friends find when they clean out their attics and basements.”

A huge thank you to Tressa Bargella for inviting us into her amazing Harry Potter themed classroom. Your hard work, creativity, and dedication to your students is outstanding.

Check out this other classroom reveal here.