Welcome to my novel study page for The BFG. On this page you will find activities related to the book. Teachers/Parents: Feel free to modify activities for your children. I created this study page for my gifted students in 2017.
(Updated 8/10/20)
Roald Dahl
September 13, 2016 marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of the author, Roald Dahl.
The Author
Ronald Dahl is a popular author of children's books. A writer of both children's fiction and short stories for adults, Roald Dahl is best known as the author of the 1964 children's book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (he also wrote the script for the 1971 movie version). Dahl has been described as a master of story construction with a remarkable ability to weave a tale.
Read more: http://www.notablebiographies.com/Co-Da/Dahl-Roald.html#ixzz4CJw6TX56
Read more: http://www.notablebiographies.com/Co-Da/Dahl-Roald.html#ixzz4CJw6TX56
The Book
The BFG (short for "The Big Friendly Giant") is a 1982 children's book written by Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake. It is an expansion of a short story from Dahl's 1975 book Danny, the Champion of the World. The book is dedicated to Dahl's late daughter, Olivia at age seven in 1962.
The story is about a young orphaned girl named Sophie. One night, Sophie sees a large, cloaked person blowing something via a trumpet-like object into a bedroom window down the street. She is discovered by the mysterious person, who carries her to his homeland of Giant Country. There, he identifies himself as the Big Friendly Giant ('BFG'), who nightly blows bottled dreams into the bedrooms of children, and explains the other type of giants that eat humans, mostly children.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_BFG
The story is about a young orphaned girl named Sophie. One night, Sophie sees a large, cloaked person blowing something via a trumpet-like object into a bedroom window down the street. She is discovered by the mysterious person, who carries her to his homeland of Giant Country. There, he identifies himself as the Big Friendly Giant ('BFG'), who nightly blows bottled dreams into the bedrooms of children, and explains the other type of giants that eat humans, mostly children.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_BFG
Things to Use
The text to the novel is available on Study Novels. This websites also has the audio so the listener can follow along.
Websites
|
Resources
|
Media
|
Novel Activities and Project Ideas
(The first three activities are mandatory. for The BFG. The novel activities and project ideas are suggested and are connected to the Chapter to Chapter Activities below.) If you need answer keys to the Nearpod or Google Forms, let me know.
Activity 1: Research information about the book. Add the information to your website. (See websites above.)
|
Activity 2: Research information about the author, Roald Dahl. Add this information to your website. Use Who is Roald Dahl? or Roald Dahl Webquest.
|
Activity 3: Read "Meet the Characters" or The BFG Characters. Then complete the Character Study (download).
|
Activity 4: Learning to Summarize. Let students watch the video on summarizing before completing Writing Activity 2. (After reading Chapters 1-6)
|
Activity 5: Compare and Contrast. Create a Venn diagram comparing two of the giants.
|
Activity 6: Watch Characterization (Frozen) video.
Write character traits for the characters on your list. |
Activity 8: Fluency. Choose a conversation script below from the story and record it in Garageband or on your tablets. NOTE: You will need to change Narrator's first paragraph.
|
Activity 9: Design a T-Shirt. Create a T-shirt in Word. If you are using iron-on transfers, you have to flip the pictures and the text.
|
Project Ideas
Project A: Make a collection of nonsense words. Define your words and illustrate. Create a Powtoon or Powerpoint. (See the Gobblefunk Glossary). You can also print the Gobblefunk Dictionary and make up your own dictionary as you read each chapter.)
|
Project B - Work as a team to create a giant poster of the BFG to put on display. The poster my class created went from floor to ceiling. We drew in it in four sections. I will post a photo if I can find one.
|
Project C - Make Frobscottle Recipe. Use this recipe or search for ideas from other sites and create your own.
|
Project D - Create a poster or a commercial for their carbonated drink. (Canva Poster Maker)
|
Project E - Create trading cards for the Giants. Use the template on Read Write Think or use my Trading
Card Template. |
Project F - Choose or write a recipe for Snozzcumbers and then make it. See the Snozzcumbers Google Form for some recipes.
|
Chapter by Chapter Activities
(Click on Vocabulary to download your vocabulary worksheet. There is a new sheets for each section. The students can type directly on each. The sheets can be saved to their computers. The documents can be linked to a website or saved.)
Read the book online. Click HERE. (I prefer the students have a hard copy or the Kindle version.) You can click on the chapters links to listen to someone read the story as you follow along.
Click on the Vocabulary for each set of words to download a word document.
Chapters 1-3
Chapter 1 - The Witching Hour (3:36)
Chapter 2- Who? (4:32)
Chapter 3 - The Snatch (4:13)
WHAT TO DO
Complete Activities 1 & 2 (See above.)
Writing Activity 1 - Describe the "Witching Hour".
Nearpod Vocabulary Quiz - Chapters 1 - 3
Nearpod Comprehension - Chapters 1 - 3
|
Chapters 4-6
Chapter 4 - The Cave (5:05)
Chapter 5 - The BFG (7:08)
Chapter 6 - The Giants (9:05)
WHAT TO DO
Complete Activities 3 & 4 (See above.)
Listen to Summarizing Song
Writing Activity 2 - Summarize Chapters 1-6
Nearpod Comprehension - Chapters 4 - 6
Try Projects B and E. (See above)
|
Chapters 7- 9
Chapter 7 - The Marvellous Ears (15.24)
Chapter 8 - Snozzcumbers (8:01)
Chapter 9 - The Bloodbottler (11:23)
WHAT TO DO
Complete Activity 5 (Venn Diagram)
Writing Activity 3 (Snozzcumbers)
Compare and Contrast Lesson (Video)
Nearpod Vocabulary Quiz - Chapters 7- 9
Nearpod Comprehension - Chapters 7 - 9
Try Project F. (See above)
|
Note: The Nearpod quizzes will give the students immediate feedback at the end.
Chapters 10-12
Chapter 10 - Frobscottle and Whizzpoppers (8:19)
Chapter 11 - Journey to Dream Country (17:49)
Complete Projects C & D. (See above.)
WHAT TO DO
Giants Nearpod (Quiz and Writing Activity)
Writing Activity 4 (You can do this if you don't want to do the Nearpod lesson.)
Try Projects C and D. (See above)
|
Chapters 13-15
Vocabulary: grotesque, infinite, contemptuously, translucent, trifle, aghast
Chapter 13 - A Trogglehumper for the Fleshlumpeater (10:17)
Chapter 15 - The Great Plan (18:35)
WHAT TO DO
Create Dream Jar (Download the docx form. Type your dreams. Complete, print and decorate.)
|
Chapters 16-18
Click on the player to listen to each chapter.
Chapter 16 - Mixing the Dream (10:07)
Chapter 17 - Journey to London - (8:04)
Chapter 18 - The Palace (7:18)
WHAT TO DO
Complete Activity 7 (See above)
Similes and Metaphors: Watch the video and discuss.
Play the Similes and Metaphor Game.
|
Chapters 19-21
Click on the player to listen to each chapter.
Chapter 19 - The Queen (16:04)
Chapter 20 - The Royal Breakfast (16:03)
Chapter 21 - The Plan (8:11)
Bonus Writing Activity : Write about an event from the story as if it was a newspaper article. Remember good articles mention Who? What? Where? When? Why?
Use Newspaper Generator or Printing Press. |
Culminating Activities
Create a Kahoot Quiz - Read the Storyjumper version of The BFG. Create at least five questions for the story. Open a Kahoot account (getkahoot.com) and make your quiz. Share your quiz with friends and family.
Create a Website - Students can create a free Website on Weebly.com. The user must have an email address to sign up or a teacher/parent can create sites for the student. Students can save and post their completed assignments on their websites. See sample student websites below. These were created in 2017.
Check out the Character Cloud videos on the students' BFG websites!
|
Chapters 22-23
Click on the player to listen to each chapter.
Chapter 22 - Capture (Part 1)
Chapters 22 & 23 -Capture (Part 2) & Feeding Time
Nearpod Quiz: Chapters 22-23 -You will read the story as you take the test. I am looking for some good writing for your open-ended questions. (This is the final also titled Author Quiz.)
|
I hope you enjoyed this Novel Study.
Below you will find samples of activities completed by one of my gifted classes.
Activity 8 - Fluency
Sample Newspaper Article
|
Sample Venn Diagram
|