Raold Dahl Day

There are many times when I am thankful for the fact that I have started using Twitter. When I first started tweeting it was with my personal account. It was just…ok! It wasn’t until I started using it for the Falcon’s Fables as a way to connect with my fellow teacher librarians that I starting realizing its full potential.

Case in point, I logged into Twitter today and immediately noticed many tweets with the #roalddahlday. After reading them and investigating I realized that today is the anniversary of Roald Dahls birthday. Now really, who isn’t a Roald Dahl fan? There is at least one book out there by him that you have read and really enjoyed. I’m not the biggest Charlie and the Chocolate Factory  fan (blasphemy, I know!) but I simply adore Matilda! I had to get in on the Roald Dahl Day action. I did a quick scan of my lesson plans and realized that I had left KA open for a free day, perfect! I quickly went about the room pulling all our Roald Dahl books off the shelf. I took a quick instagram photo to tweet and post on Facebook and then decided how I would introduce The Man to the children.

Roald Dahl

Thankfully, our only biography on Roald Dahl is Roald Dahl: A Life of Imagination  by Jennifer Boothroyd. This series of biographies is written especially for young children. After introducing them to Roald Dahl, I asked if they had ever heard of him. I got a lot of blank stares. Ok, I know young children don’t always pay attention to the authors of their favorite books. Next I mentioned Charlie and the Chocolate Factory  which of course brought on shouts of “I love that movie” or “oh yeah I saw that one on tv”. Ok good, so they do know The Man even if they don’t know it yet.

Next we read The Enormous Crocodile. This story is about an incredibly hungry and not very nice crocodile. His favorite meal is a plump juicy little child. On his journey to gobble up as many children as he can, the crocodile encounters different animals who find him to be greedy, mean and disgusting. Thankfully, those same animals manage to foil the crocodiles secret plans and clever tricks. I’ve never witnessed a group of kindergarteners so enthralled with a book. Hardly anyone fidgeted and everyone payed close attention. Truly Roald Dahl does have a way with the imagination.

My favorite moment of the morning was when one of the children looked over to my book display carefully investigating every Roald Dahl book. At last his eyes rested on The Roald Dahl Treasury with its cover of various characters reading different book. He carefully raised his hand with excitement and when called upon exclaimed, “I love The BFG! Do you know The BFG because I know him and love him.” Then turning to his classmates our little kindergartener said “Do you know the best thing about The BFG? If Ms. Natalie were to stand next to him she would be teeny tiny”.

The BFG

Yes I know The Big Friendly Giant as well as many other famous Roald Dahl characters. They are all special to me and many children young and old. Happy birthday Mr. Dahl, you’re The Man!