Remember the first time you read the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Or the first time you saw the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory? Those were basically life-changing experiences for me. So when it was time to introduce our kids to Charlie Bucket, Willy Wonka, Veruca Salt, and all the others, I wanted to make it memorable for them too.
And that’s why we put together this Charlie and the Chocolate Factory unit study! There are crafts, printables, and activities here that relate to both the story and the movie. If you love this one, don’t miss our other homeschool unit studies, including our Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs unit!
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Unit Study
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We began by reading the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. We split the reading up into three chapters per school day and both Jay and I took turns reading it aloud. The kids were fascinated with it right from the beginning. Probably because of all the talk about candy. 🙂
Tigger looked up some of the unusual vocabulary words along the way and she completed a character map all about Charlie – what kind of personality he had, his family’s living situation, and the way he looked. Charlie is probably one of the most sympathetic characters in all of children’s literature. You really root for him through the whole book.
These free chocolate notebooking pages are a fun way to help kids keep track of their vocabulary words through the book! To get your copy, just click the image or the link below.
>>>>> Chocolate Notebooking Pages <<<<<
Once we finished the book, we did a Willy Wonka toilet paper roll craft using a circusmaster toilet roll craft from DLTK Crafts.
We just printed out three copies – one for each child.
Then we cut out the pieces and slowly began assembling them. I liked this project because there weren’t a lot of pieces and the kids only had to glue a few of them together.
We also found out that liquid glue is much better for this than glue sticks. Just so you know.
Three Wonkas!
We decided to finish the unit by watching the original movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Of course, we couldn’t enter the factory without finding a golden ticket in a Wonka bar.
The problem is that we couldn’t find any Wonka bars for sale. (I remember seeing them when I was younger, but I guess they stopped making them.) Amazon.com to the rescue!
We bought a super cute Willy Wonka Chocolate Bar wrapper with a copy of the Golden Ticket and used a regular 4.3 ounce chocolate bar as the candy.
The golden ticket actually uses the exact wording from the story. Awww…
We wrapped the chocolate bar and placed the golden ticket inside. Then we opened it as a family and shared the chocolate. The kids don’t eat a lot of candy, so that was a real treat for them.
Time to watch the movie! We rented it through Amazon Instant Video. Took about 30 seconds.
I literally get nostalgic whenever I see Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I watched it along with my third grade class and it just instantly transports me back to my childhood when imagination was truly the most important thing I had.
And be sure to try some of these super Charlie and the Chocolate Factory activities to round out your unit!
Don’t miss these other fun unit studies for children!
Plus, see more awesome unit studies for homeschoolers on my Unit Studies Pinterest board!
This post is part of the Movie and a Big Idea linkup from iHomeschool Network! Click over to read more great movie-themed learning ideas for kids!
That is brilliant, we love Charlie, too. You can actually buy Wonka chocolate here in the UK but I think yours looks more real. We might be giving this a whirl.
Gasp! Real Wonka chocolate exists! And here I was telling the kids that he wasn’t real. 🙂