Happy Roald Dahl Day!

       

          Greetings again, blogging world! My return to blogging comes as a desire to share a little bit of joy from my life. I am currently teaching English 10 and 11 at Payson High School, and every day I have my students write in their Writer's Notebooks. I try to find a variety of prompts, with different focuses and topics. I found out on Friday morning that it was Roald Dahl Day, since Dahl was born on September 13, 1916. I decided we had to celebrate in my class!        

           But then the task got tricky. Which one of his amazing books should I choose to talk about with my students? How could I chose? There are so many amazing options: Matilda, The BFG, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,Boy, James and the Peach....the list goes on and on. It felt like an impossible task to only focus on one! So, we instead had a small discussion about all of his books and the resulting film adaptations. I then read them my favorite chapter from Boy, entitled "Chocolates." It tells the story of how he got the idea for Willy Wonka's magical factory. I then had them write about what they would do if they could live in a chocolate/candy factory for a day. When they finished, I told them about my first trip to Cadbury World. (See my post My Obsession with British Chocolate for more information) We ended our tribute to Roald Dahl by watching "Pure Imagination" from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, starring Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka. If you would like to watch it is as well, I have posted it. Trust me, it's worth watching again and again.

         Although the day will have passed, I will still celebrate with my students on Monday who have not had this lesson yet. I believe Roald Dahl should be celebrated. He was a genius. Take some time, and listen to the interviews with him on the website dedicated to his work: Roald Dahl. He openly talks about the painstaking work of writing. He also discusses his greatest inspiration: his own children. I love this man dearly. Boy is one of my all-time favorite novels. I still love The BFG. And if I could live in Willy Wonka's factory, I would.

Two last gems for my readers, from my students:

• I have a door in my classroom that connects to the Copy Center, and there is constant whirring coming from behind the door. One of my students, to get a laugh, asked if it was my Chokey. The next time he made a smart comment, I laughed and just reminded of the now infamous Chokey. The whole class thought it was a grand joke.
• Another student made my day when she said that I reminded her of Miss Honey. I said, "Thanks! That's a nice thing to say." And she replied, "No, I mean it. You even look like her." It was a tiny teacher dream come true. It has also inspired my Halloween costume. Anyone have overalls I could borrow?

Please share with me your favorite Roald Dahl memories. I would love to hear them. And that's the musing of a marvelous me!