Case study: Telling a story at the Roald Dahl Museum

Emmbrook teachers used their visit as a hook for their Roald Dahl English topic as well as to support their shared reading of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Upon arrival, the children went straight into a creative warm-up activity. They had five minutes to make a Playdough model and sound effect for a Gruncher, using only a few lines of Roald Dahl’s writing. Comparing their models to professional illustrations helped the children to see how people can make different creative versions from the same starting point.

Then it was on to a series of hands-on, well-paced activities including making new scenes from Roald Dahl’s photography, completing and developing some of the author’s unpublished ideas and investigating how he transformed everyday objects around him into magical items for stories.

Teacher Amy Brooks said that the children “loved being creative”. They also gained a new understanding, with one pupil explaining that she was really surprised to find that Roald Dahl was a photographer, commenting: “I thought he was more into writing things”.

Year 3 then explored the main galleries with a ‘Who was Roald Dahl?’ trail to guide them. They found out lots of surprising information including the story behind Roald Dahl’s teeth and how Matilda started as a very different character. They particularly loved sitting in a replica of Roald’s chair. Amy Brooks said that there were “little fun bits everywhere” to keep them busy.

The day continued with an investigation into the different roles that writers and illustrators play in creating a picture book. The children were amazed to find that this was more of a collaborative process than they thought, with one explaining “some things that I thought might be the illustrator’s job turn out to be the writer’s job!”

It was then time to put into action everything that they had learnt (particularly their new ideas about working together) and for the children to collaborate as writers and illustrators to produce a new animal character for the class’s own picture book.

Lead teachers Linda Bendall and Amy Brooks said they “absolutely loved” the visit and planned to start writing a Roald Dahl fact file for non-chronological writing the next day. They described the children as “engrossed” throughout the day and were delighted that their pupils had told them “I want to now read this book” for The Giraffe, the Pelly and Me after learning more about how Roald Dahl developed characters for it.

They noted that the children had been “learning in a completely different way to the way they normally do in school” and appreciated the “great communication between (museum) and school”. Linda and Amy concluded that they will “definitely come back again next year”.