Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Grandpa Joe Takes a Gamble

Lesson Plan Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Grandpa Joe takes a Gamble Overview Learning objective • To be able to explain and demonstrate elements of suspense writing, including the concepts of climax and anti-climax. Learning outcome • To produce a piece of writing in the genre of suspense. Book reference • Chapter 9: Grandpa Joe takes a Gamble. Cross-curricular link • Literacy, Drama. Resources • A wrapped chocolate bar per pair or group; a bag with lots of pieces of paper inside. Starter • Allow the children to experience climax and anti-climax through • Everyone stands in a circle. Someone stands in the middle as an activity, for example: Willy Wonka. The children pass around an imaginary chocolate • Hold up a bag with lots of pieces of paper inside it, and tell the bar. When Willy Wonka says “Stop” the person with the imaginary class that one of the pieces of paper is a promise of chocolate chocolate bar pretends to unwrap it. He or she can decide for the lucky winner. The children pass the bag around and take whether the chocolate bar does or doesn’t have a golden ticket a piece of paper from the bag one by one. It turns out that there inside. If it has a golden ticket inside, the person shouts “Golden is no lucky piece of paper in the bag. Take the disappointed or ticket!” and everyone in the circle stands up and punches the angry reaction and explain it is an example of anti-climax. air and says “Yesss!” If it does not have a golden ticket inside, the person says “No golden ticket” and everyone can fall dramatically to the floor and say “Ohhh.” The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre www.roalddahl.com Registered charity number 1085853 | Company limited by guarantee number 4178505 Illustrations © Quentin Blake Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Grandpa Joe takes a Gamble cont. Main teaching activity • Use the activities from the starter to explain the concepts of • Ask the children to reflect on how suspense can be created by climax and anti-climax. prolonging the experience of ‘waiting for something to happen.’ • The whole class reads chapter 9: Grandpa Joe takes a Gamble. • In pairs, children discuss their own experiences of suspense • Ask the children to identify whether it is an example of climax in games, books, films, or real life, and feed back about how or anti-climax. (Refer also to chapter 7: Charlie’s Birthday). they felt, whether it was a climax or an anti-climax, and what characterised the suspense (e.g. waiting for a long time). • Enable the children to experience suspense. For example, show a film clip which demonstrates suspense, or pass the children • As a class, close-read the following extract. a bag and ask them to guess what it is inside by looking and • Look at how suspense is created in the extract through the feeling it, and then show what is inside it (perhaps a big furry use of punctuation including question marks, sentence length spider to create a climax, or rolled up newspaper to create an and paragraph length. Short sentences, short paragraphs and anti-climax). overuse of punctuation can increase the experience of waiting and therefore build suspense. ‘Have you got it?’ whispered Grandpa Joe, his eyes shining with excitement. Charlie nodded and held out the bar of chocolate. WONKA’S NUTTY CRUNCH SURPRISE, “ it said on the wrapper. ‘Good!’ the old man whispered, sitting up in the bed and rubbing his hands. ‘Now – come over here and sit close by to and we’ll open it together. Are you ready?’ ‘Yes,’ Charlie said, ‘I’m ready.’ ‘All right. You tear off the first bit.’ ‘No,’ Charlie said, ‘you paid for it. You do it all.’ The old man’s fingers were trembling most terribly as they fumbled with the wrapper. ‘We don’t have a hope, really,’ he whispered, giggling a bit. ‘You do know we don’t have a hope, don’t you?’ ‘Yes,’ Charlie said. ‘I know that.’ They looked at each other, and both started giggling nervously. ‘Mind you,’ said Grandpa Joe, ‘there is just that tiny chance that it might be the one, don’t you agree?’ ‘Yes,’ Charlie said. ‘Of course. Why don’t you open it, Grandpa?’ ‘All in good time, my boy, all in good time. Which end do you think I ought to open first?’ ‘That corner. The one furthest from you. Just tear off a tiny bit, but not quite enough for us to see anything.’ The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre www.roalddahl.com Registered charity number 1085853 | Company limited by guarantee number 4178505 Illustrations © Quentin Blake Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Grandpa Joe takes a Gamble cont. ‘Like that?’ said the old man. “ ‘Yes. Now a little bit more.’ ‘You finish it,’ said Grandpa Joe. ‘I’m too nervous.’ ‘No, Grandpa. You must do it yourself.’ ‘Very well, then. Here goes.’ He tore off the wrapper. They both stared at what lay underneath. It was a bar of chocolate – nothing more. All at once, they both saw the funny side of the whole thing, and they burst into peals of laughter. Group or independent activity • Give each pair or group a wrapped chocolate bar, placed in the middle of the table. Without touching it, the children describe the chocolate bar using sensory language (see, hear, smell, taste, touch). After a while, one child is allowed to slowly unwrap the chocolate bar. Individuals continue to write down their feelings as the chocolate bar is unwrapped. • The children imagine they have just bought one of Willy Wonka’s Whipple-scrumptious Fudgemallow Delights. They can then develop their writing into a short descriptive piece in which the chocolate bar either has a golden ticket within it or does not. • The children look back over their work and check it for the success criteria: use of effective punctuation, sentence length and paragraph length to build the suspense. The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre www.roalddahl.com Registered charity number 1085853 | Company limited by guarantee number 4178505 Illustrations © Quentin Blake Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Grandpa Joe takes a Gamble cont. Plenary • Individuals read their pieces to the class. The class identify the pieces show examples of climax or anti-climax, and comment upon the success criteria. Other activities • Individuals read their pieces of writing aloud and as they read, • The children learn about The Rule of Three, finding examples in the rest of the class act or mime the words. books, films, fairytales and nursery rhymes, and identify how the Rule of Three is used for Charlie’s finding of the golden ticket – • The children make a storyboard of their piece of suspense he opens three chocolate bars before finding the lucky one. writing. • The children role play a news report, showing an interview • When reading chapter 11, The Miracle, ask whether it is an between a news reporter and Charlie - or the students example of climax and anti-climax and how this in reflected themselves as other golden ticket winners. in the language; for example, the shop keeper’s overuse of exclamation marks. The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre www.roalddahl.com Registered charity number 1085853 | Company limited by guarantee number 4178505 Illustrations © Quentin Blake.

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