Happy Roald Dahl Day!

Roald Dahl Day takes place each year on his birthday, and is celebrated by kids all over the world (especially England and the US). He is my favorite author, for many reasons. His books are humorous and use beautiful language - Roald Dahl does NOT talk down to children. His respect for children shines out through his many books - adults, however, do not get off so easily.

The children came into the classroom today to find the following mystery message on the board. Can you solve it as easily as they did?

T_ _ _ m_ _ _ _ _ _, w_ w_ _ _ c_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ t_ _ b_ _ _ _ _ _ _ o_ R_ _ _ _ D_ _ _. H_ w_ _ _ _ b_ 99 y_ _ _ _ o_ _ i_ h_ w_ _ _ a_ _ _ _.

(Mystery messages are a way I often start off the morning - a great thinking activity, and one of the many sneaky ways literacy skills get worked into the day. We talked today, for instance, on why the R and D were upper case - a big hint to solving the message!)

During Read/Write time we began reading one of the shorter Roald Dahl books - The Twits. This book is about a truly dreadful pair of people who pay horrible tricks on each other. One of the tricks that Mrs. Twit plays on her gruesome husband is to make wormy spaghetti. He complains that it is a bit mushy and bitter, but eats the whole plate anyway, before he learns that his darling wife has sneaked a pile of worms in with the pasta.

Of course, we had to make some ourselves:

oooh, disgusting! I think I see one wiggling!

Children made the sauce in the morning, and then grated the cheese for the finished product in the afternoon. We enjoyed the spaghetti for afternoon snack, (pretend) worms and all.

We will finish the book this week, and the students will complete their first book review. I have a feeling this book will get a 5 star rating from most of the children. Happy Roald Dahl Day to you all!