'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' Literature Activities

'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' Literature Activities
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Design Your Own Candy

Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory produces fun and unique types of candy. Encourage students to develop their own candy bars or sugary snacks, as well as an ad or another way of marketing them. For example, a student might design a candy bar that looks like several balloons tied together, but tastes lighter than air. It might even make the eater float a few feet above the ground. The student might develop a marketing plan that consists of someone flying over a large city, being held up by dozens of helium balloons. The flier would throw down free samples of the candy for everyone to catch. Encourage creativity – the zanier the better!

Invent a Candy-Making Machine

Willy Wonka has invented some awfully strange machines to make his chocolate and candy. Challenge your students to create their own machines. Have them draw a diagram of the machine with a paragraph-long caption explaining how it works. If you’d like, let them write a story about how Willy Wonka created the machine, as well as if anything went wrong during the building process.

Add a Character

Have students work in groups or individually to create a possible character that could be included in the group. The character should have a flaw, just like Violet, Augustus, Mike, or Verruca do. They should write two short paragraphs about their character: one about the character’s flaw, and one about what happens to the character in the factory. Then they will write an Oompa Loompa song that will be sung about the character.

Make Chocolate Goodies

You can’t read such a chocolaty book without feeling motivated to make some chocolate yourself. Bring your favorite chocolate recipe to class, and spend a period making it together with your students. You might try peanut butter balls, chocolate smores, or chocolate covered pretzels. Make sure to bring enough ingredients for the entire class to make some – and encourage them to bring some home for their families to enjoy as well.

You can also try out this Charlie and the Chocolate Factory lesson plan to get your students thinking more deeply about the novel.