Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Using Themed Lessons

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With Valentine's Day just around the corner, it's a great idea to get in the spirit with some themed lessons. One of my favorite novels to use for this kind of lesson is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Ronald Dahl. There are so many fun things you can do with this book, and with all of the candy involved, your learner might even look forward to reading time!

The first activity I found for this book is one that I think is fantastic! In this activity, have your learner design their own chocolate bar. They will decide how it will taste, what the wrapper will look like, and how to design it (you can even have them draw their own wrapper and put it on a candy bar!). Once your learner has the candy bar designed, write a letter to Willy Wonka requesting that he sell the candy bar.

Another fun activity is WONKA, a version of BINGO. You can do this several ways. I prefer to keep track of words your learner found difficult to read. Once you have enough to make a bingo card, use those words for the game. You can simply call out the word or use the definition to make it more difficult. I think this would be even more fun if you used some sort of Valentine's candy to mark the spaces!

A few more to keep your lessons going: Have your learner design a new room for the chocolate factory. Let them draw it and write their own description of the room as well. Ask your learner to draw a picture of Charlie's house based on the description in the book. Do this on a piece of plain paper folded in half. On the inside of the paper, draw Charlie's family based on the description in the book. Have your learner write a list of attributes for every family member or character in the novel.

Any novel can be used for themed lessons, but I love Charlie and the Chocolate Factory because it offers so many fun activities. The possibilities are truly endless with this classic children's novel.