Years 2 to 4

Galleries-based 90 minute sessions

Exploring Editing

Roald Dahl was a master of the editing process. Explore the galleries to find out about the changes he made to his stories, from James’s giant fruits to Matilda the Miracle Child. Find the editing tools he used in his Writing Hut, then develop a character in our interactive Story Centre by editing a line written by the author.

Crafting Characters

Discover how Roald Dahl found his ideas for creating characters from real life. Explore the galleries, dress up for inspiration and make your own character in our interactive Story Centre using pictures of eyes from Roald Dahl’s archive.

Unlocking Ideas

Get creative in our interactive Story Centre to collect ideas for a class Ideas Book. Explore the galleries to find out about Roald Dahl’s inspiration for the worlds of Charlie, James and Fantastic Mr Fox. Plus discover the author’s own Ideas Book!

Archive-based 180 minute sessions

All of our archive-based sessions use examples from our collection of Roald Dahl’s drafts, letters and notebooks that your group won’t see elsewhere in the Museum. You will visit the galleries but this is for a limited time and the focus of your session will be in our learning space.

Explore the Archive: Undercover Editors

Discover how Roald Dahl edited his work with examples from the archive throughout this session. Get hands-on completing editing activities, gobblefunk around with words like the BFG and hunt around the Museum for editing examples from the master storyteller. Finally, use all that you have learnt to edit some of Roald Dahl’s own work – will you send it to the publisher and meet the deadline?!

Explore the Archive: Creative Collaborators

Did you know that Roald Dahl was also a photographer and framer? In this session you will discover the various ways that he was creative by doing the same kinds of activities yourself. Learn more about the creative process between Roald Dahl and the illustrators of his books to create gruesome Grunchers and marvellous Muggle-Wumps. Then work together as closely as Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake did to produce a class picture book, with everyone taking different roles to collaborate creatively.

Village Trail

You can combine all our sessions with our self-led Village Trail which will allow you to explore Great Missenden and its connections with Roald Dahl.