If you had been at Cranleigh Prep today, you might be have been a bit biffsquiggled to see so many little human beans dressed up as book characters. Whilst not wishing to bish the surprise, we celebrated World Book Day, Roald Dahl style!
The children churgled and daddled when they saw the fantastic off-timetable cross-curricular programme of activities, all related to the fabulous works of Roald Dahl. To give you a little glimp of this ginaticus day, we enjoyed:
Art: Inspired by the illustrations of Quentin Blake, pupils created drawings of monsters based on the Giant names in the BFG.
Boarders Letter Writing: Throughout his time at boarding school and later in the army, Roald was a prolific letter writer and wrote hundreds of letters to his Mum. Accompanied with hot chocolate and marshmallows, some of the boarders chose to write letters to their families which are winging their way to their houses now.
Catering: Not to be left out, the Catering Department surpassed themselves offering a flavory-savoryfull Roald Dahl menu and some yummy World Book Day cupcakes for morning snack. The children golluped this lickswishy food straight down!
Computer Coding: Form 6 used their knowledge of the English language, computer science understanding and programming skills to make a modern-day version of “The Great Automatic Grammatizator”, a story written by Roald Dahl in 1953. In this programming activity, pupils were able to use the programming language of Python to create their own version of this machine to make their own incredible sounding and randomly created sentences!
Design Technology: Inspired by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, pupils designed their own Wonka Bar packaging. Focusing on graphic products, pupils used existing products and unique ideas to create a colourful and fun CPS Wonka Bar!
Drama: Through movement and voice, some unsuspecting pupils become fierce giants from “The BFG”. Bonecruncher, Gizzardgulper, and their motley crew will be stalking the Roulston building – chiddlers beware!
Divergent Drama: A visiting production company helped the children recreate scenes from the book, explore exaggerated characters, work in teams to create their own “pranks”, meet and become characters from the book and learn facts about Roald Dahl.
English: Form 1 participated in a joint lesson with Cranleigh Abu Dhabi, sharing costumes and stories. Form 2 read and performed a play based on one of the Roald Dahl books. Working with Cranleigh Abu Dhabi, Form 3 and 4 created BFG inspired dreams jars. They filled them with their wishes and magical dreams using Roald Dahl’s “Gobblefunk” language mixed with their creative descriptions and illustrations. Finally, Forms 5 and 6 looked at Dahl’s characters and invented their own.
Fives: Some of the pupils loved their introduction to the brilliant game of Fives, which was Roald Dahl’s favourite sport!
French: Pupils found out some very interesting facts about Roald Dahl’s life and his famous books … all in French ! In addition, they learnt some important and useful “literary French vocabulary” so that they were also able to enjoy a French World Book day!
Food Tech: Pupils made a version of Bruce Bogtrotter’s chocolate cake. This was a rich cake using the creaming cake making method, flavoured with melted dark chocolate and sandwiched together with chocolate buttercream, completed with more chocolate icing on top and a scattering of sweet chocolate delights. This delicious cake tested the children’s self-restraint!
Geography: Based on the amazing travels in James and the Giant Peach, pupils identified and learned about the famous landmarks that James would have encountered on his famous journey.
Humanities: Form 3 pupils participated in the international sugar trade, but of course, not all members have the same global location, access to resources or finances! This links with Form 3’s current Humanities topic on the origins of and trade in chocolate.
Neil Peel meets Roald Dahl: Our own children’s author, Mr Dixon, explained how Roald Dahl inspired him as a child and as a budding author. The humour throughout his work was something Mr Dixon wanted to emulate, albeit for an older audience. He then read some of his books to the inspired audience.
Maths: Across the school, the pupils completed a Roald Dahl Word Problems Maths Relay. Working in teams of 3, the pupils raced each other to see who could answer the most questions correctly in 30 mins and win a coveted Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-style treat!
Meet a Matilda Star: Jasmin Colangelo, an actress who performed in Matilda in the West End, on the International Tour and at the Royal Variety Performance 2021, inspired the children with her real-life stories and experience playing Miss Honey and Mrs Wormwood in Matilda, The Musical. Jasmin listened to our Form 5s preparation for the CPS production of Matilda The Musical for Schools and encouraged the children with their performance.
Music: Based on Willy Wonka’s Song of the Oompa-Loompas, and in a live lesson with the Year 8s in Cranleigh Abu Dhabi, pupils wrote their own Roald Dahl themed raps and created a rhythmic backing accompaniment using GarageBand.
Religion and Philosophy: Linking our work to Roald Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, pupils explored Quaker families and their beliefs. Quaker families, such as Rowntrees, Bournville and Fry’s built their businesses on core Quaker beliefs that promoted peace, fairness and equality amongst their workers.”
Science: Mrs Groocock, inspired by the George’s Marvellous Medicine, led a fantastic Science showing children how to perform reactions safely so that they can entertain their families.
Team Building: Based on Roald Dahl’s passions of horse racing and painting, the children enjoyed these outside team-building activities.
The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre: Some pupils were treated with a live online lesson from the world experts about everything to do with Roald Dahl. They enjoyed seeing where Roald wrote his stories and learning more about the man.
biffsquiggled – If you feel biffsquiggled, you are confused or puzzled.
bish – If you bish something, you ruin it.
churgled – When you churgle, you gurgle with laughter.
daddled – If you daddle, you run very fast.
glimps – A very quick glimpse or peek.
ginaticus – Grand and spectacular.
flavory-savory – Sweet and delicious
gollup – A big gulp or swallow
lickswishy – A lickswishy taste or flavor is gloriously delicious
