Reading with Roald Dahl

In fourth grade, I am responsible for doing two author studies, one of which is Roald Dahl. Exciting!! I am a big Roald Dahl fan and love how he combines fantasy and humor. The first time I read about whizzpopping from The BFG I  laughed hysterically and knew the kids would find it funny it as well (and boy was I right, lol). I did some searching and found lots of lesson ideas but not exactly what I was looking for. I have my kids split up into four reading groups and the books they are reading are Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, The Twits, and Esio Trot. During reading groups they were responsible for answering comprehension questions and reading aloud. I kept track of those two things using a table with their names and a space for each category. I used comprehension cards (love) with the students who were responsible for picking one card from the pile and competing the task or answering the question.

I ended up creating my own worksheets and lesson plans for the kids and was able to incorporate a lot of the writing and language standards from the Common Core State Standards. I really like connecting our reading and writing together and find less resistance from the students this way. 

You can find and download these lessons at my TPT store. 

I have also read aloud The Witches (which I got them all for Christmas from Scholastic Book Clubs for only $1) and The BFG. We are also working on Dirty Beasts which I give to groups that finish early. They work together to practice fluency and expression as well as look at sentence structure and word usage. I haven't found a book that the kids (and I) don't love. I am dragging my feet about moving on to something else in reading already!