Roald Dahl’s one hundredth birthday is approaching, and all over the world, schools, libraries and other organisations are getting ready to celebrate an extra special Roald Dahl Day, taking place next week on Tuesday 13th September 2016.
As part of of those celebrations, we’re searching for a hundred schools to take the Paper Nations challenge and sign up to pioneer our national new writing programme. But in the meantime, we’ve compiled some of our favourite resources, activities and other fun stuff for parents and teachers. So don’t get biffsquiggled (Roald Dahl’s word for puzzled for confused) by all the options – just read on for our recommendations!
Find a Roald Dahl Day event near you: On the official website, you’ll find details of Roald Dahl Day events all over the world, including how you could be having dinner with The Twits in London, taking part in a birthday picnic at Tatton Park, or entering The Wondercrump World of Roald Dahl in Cardiff.
Watch the live webcast: Organised by Puffin Virtually Live, this will be broadcast from the Cambridge Theatre. It’ll be screened live in over 5000 schools, but you can also sign up to watch from your own home. See an exclusive performance of Matilda: The Musical, go behind the scenes of The BFG, invent words with the word wizards from the Roald Dahl Dictionary, and draw along with Quentin Blake. You can also download a free Roald Dahl party pack to get the celebrations started.
Get gobblefunking: Pick a word from the Roald Dahl dictionary and use it as a starting point for a story, or set a challenge to see who can gobblefunk (which means to play around with words to invent new words or meanings) the most words in a set amount of time.
Which witch? In Roald Dahl’s The Witches, a witchophile is ‘a person who studies witches and knows a lot about them.’ Become a witchophile for the day by describing what a witch looks like, where they go and what they do. It could be written as a diary entry or maybe a warning letter to other children.
Delicious dreams: In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, “Mr Willy Wonka can make marshmallows that taste of violets, and rich caramels that change colour every ten seconds as you suck them, and little feathery sweets that melt away deliciously the moment you put them between your lips.” If you had to invent a new confectionery concoction for Wonka, what would you make? Describe your dream chocolate bar in as much detail as possible.
Marvellous Medicine Maker: Take inspiration from George in George’s Marvellous Medicine and imagine a new medicine. In the book, George makes his from household ingredients including toothpaste, floor polish and extra hot chilli sauce. Take a tour round the house for inspiration, then write a list of what would go into yours, and the effects it might have.
Seek out Roald Dahl’s secrets: Feel like your writing is flushbunking (making no sense whatsoever)? Here’s seven writing tips on writing from Roald Dahl himself. You can also see photos of Dahl’s desk and the hut where he wrote most of his most famous stories.
Other activities: Make your own Mr. Twit beard, invent your own Wonka creation, or make your own ‘Inventor at Work’ door hanger to keep out pesky parents and siblings while you’re cooking up new words or other creative concoctions.
So raise a glass of frobscottle (a delicious green fizz drunk by giants), mix up a batch of Wonka’s Whipple-Scrumptious Fudgemallow Delight, and get ready to celebrate Roald Dahl Day next week. Just save some scrumdiddlyumptious (utterly delicious) treats for us…