School's Ideas

Schools and libraries have been celebrating Roald Dahl Day since 2006 and Puffin collected all their best ideas in the Roald Dahl Champions of Reading competition in 2008. Read on to find out which of these great ideas might work for your school.

From Harrogate Grammar School Library (library winner)

Librarian Lisa Bryden uses Roald Dahl Day to welcome each year's new Year 7s (around 200 pupils) to the school and the library. Last year, to gather ideas, she set her library reading group an Apprentice-style challenge in the summer term. In four teams, each with a project manager, they spent four weeks coming up with ideas for the day and presented their plans to Mrs Bryden and two colleagues. Here's how it worked in gloriumptious reality.

• At the student volunteers' suggestion, the school held its 'Let's Celebrate Roald Dahl' event on September 22, 2008. This allowed two weeks to promote Roald Dahl and reading to the new intake. To help with this, Mrs Bryden gave each Year 7 English teacher a resource box including a selection of books, a poster and links to online resources.

On the day:

• Mrs Bryden dressed up as Willy Wonka and library volunteers as Dahl characters.

• The Year 7s were given tickets for a library event with competitions including:

  • How many sweets in a jar?

  • The best Mr Twit's Beard

  • What's behind the dirty window?

Winners received 'Wonka Gobstoppers' and 'Wonka Rope' as prizes and all Year 7s who visited the library event received a certificate and could choose a book from the 'swap a book' table.

• Year 7s were individually photographed with a Giant Peach made by two volunteers from papier mache and wire.

• A chocolate fountain (to reward volunteers).

• A design-a-sweet competition organised by the design and technology department.

From Kilsyth primary school (class winner)

Jane Stocks, primary 3 (year 3) teacher has had the same class for two years, which has given her lots of time to introduce them to Roald Dahl's books. Mrs Stocks reads to the children every day and says: 'In my class language is at the centre of everything and regardless of ability every child loves to read, be read to and write.'

• On the day: Parents were given character descriptions in advance and the children asked to come dressed as a character, or in yellow if they preferred. There were prizes of Roald Dahl books for the best outfits. Pupils designed Dahl book covers (more prizes) and took part in a Roald Dahl quiz (certificates for those who scored 100 per cent). In the afternoon, they signed up for readings of a selection of Dahl stories (each teacher read a selection of extracts from a different book.

• Through September: The class focuses on an Author of the Month and the choice for September was Roald Dahl.

  • Pupils read children's biographies of Dahl and then wrote their own.

  • They read Twits and The BFG as a class plus extracts from others including Matilda, Danny the Champion of the World and The Witches.

  • The class watched The BFG film and DVD and compared the novel and screen versions.

  • Mrs Stocks put her daughter's collection of Roald Dahl magazines in the class library corner along with Dahl stories, audiobooks and biographies. Children are encouraged to read and listen to these by themselves. Their own work about Dahl is also on display in this area.

  • The more able readers were given Dahl novels as home reading books and Mrs Stocks read George's Marvellous Medicine with this group.

  • All pupils took home extracts from Dahl novels to share with parents. 'Many have enjoyed reading books with their children that they read themselves years ago, and the feedback has been great,' Mrs Stocks says.

  • Writing generated by the books included: character analysis, storyline predictions, alternative endings, new adventures with the characters and book reports.

• Cross-curricular activities in September

  • Art: pupils made Mr Twits, Roly-Poly Birds, Mugglewumps pop-up BFGs and their own versions of the Nine Terrible Giants.

  • Art/literacy: they made dream catchers (learning about the Native American tradition) and dream trumpets, wrote about the phizzwizards they would like to have and filled jars with their dreams ('lots of glitter!').

  • Design and technology: pupils made Wonka chocolate bars and designed wrappers for them. Mrs Stocks hid a Golden Ticket inside one wrapper, with a Roald Dahl book as a prize.

From Rice Lane Junior School, Liverpool

Rice Lane started the new school year with a whole-school focus on Roald Dahl linked to Roald Dahl Day and its work on National Year of Reading themes.

• Each class voted for their top five Dahl books. The results were shared with parents in the school newsletter.

• Each class made a display board on a different Dahl book for the school hall. There was also a Roald Dahl display in the library area.

• Class teachers planned activities including: Design a Sweet for Willy Wonka, bar charts of votes for favourite titles, debates about favourite Dahl characters.

From Dordon Library, Warwickshire

Gail Fordham, assistant librarian in charge of this small village library, used Roald Dahl Day to attract new members from the local primary school.

• Ms Fordham visited an assembly to introduce a join-the-library pack for every school pupil, which included a Golden Ticket. Pupils who visited the library could post their ticket in a box as part of a Roald Dahl Zone display, and enter a draw for a collection of Roald Dahl books.