Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Grandpa Joe takes a Gamble
Lesson Plan
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
an activity, for example:
• Hold up a bag with lots of pieces of paper inside it, and tell the
class that one of the pieces of paper is a promise of chocolate
for the lucky winner. The children pass the bag around and take
a piece of paper from the bag one by one. It turns out that there
is no lucky piece of paper in the bag. Take the disappointed or
angry reaction and explain it is an example of anti-climax.
• Everyone stands in a circle. Someone stands in the middle as
Willy Wonka. The children pass around an imaginary chocolate
bar. When Willy Wonka says “Stop” the person with the imaginary
chocolate bar pretends to unwrap it. He or she can decide
whether the chocolate bar does or doesn’t have a golden ticket
inside. If it has a golden ticket inside, the person shouts “Golden
ticket!” and everyone in the circle stands up and punches the
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
climax and anti-climax.
• The whole class reads chapter 9: Grandpa Joe takes a Gamble.
• Ask the children to identify whether it is an example of climax
or anti-climax. (Refer also to chapter 7: Charlie’s Birthday).
• Enable the children to experience suspense. For example, show
a film clip which demonstrates suspense, or pass the children
a bag and ask them to guess what it is inside by looking and
feeling it, and then show what is inside it (perhaps a big furry
spider to create a climax, or rolled up newspaper to create an
anti-climax).
“
• Ask the children to reflect on how suspense can be created by
prolonging the experience of ‘waiting for something to happen.’
• In pairs, children discuss their own experiences of suspense
in games, books, films, or real life, and feed back about how
they felt, whether it was a climax or an anti-climax, and what
characterised the suspense (e.g. waiting for a long time).
• As a class, close-read the following extract.
• Look at how suspense is created in the extract through the
use of punctuation including question marks, sentence length
and paragraph length. Short sentences, short paragraphs and
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 rest of the class act or mime the words.
• The children make a storyboard of their piece of suspense
writing.
• When reading chapter 11, The Miracle, ask whether it is an
example of climax and anti-climax and how this in reflected
in the language; for example, the shop keeper’s overuse of
exclamation marks.
• The children learn about The Rule of Three, finding examples in
books, films, fairytales and nursery rhymes, and identify how the
Rule of Three is used for Charlie’s finding of the golden ticket –
he opens three chocolate bars before finding the lucky one.
• The children role play a news report, showing an interview
between a news reporter and Charlie - or the students
themselves as other golden ticket winners.
The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre
www.roalddahl.com
Registered charity number 1085853 | Company limited by guarantee number 4178505
Illustrations © Quentin Blake