In Revolting Rhymes, Roald Dahl takes much loved fairy tales – many originally written to warn children of the dangers of disobedience – and gleefully subverts their underlying message, with hilarious results.

In this lesson, great for National Poetry Day and Roald Dahl Day, children will first learn from the master before attempting to write their own mischievous poems in the style of Revolting Rhymes.

Revolting Rhymes extract

As soon as he began to feel
That he would like a decent meal
He went and knocked on Grandma’s door
When Grandma opened it she saw
The sharp white teeth, the horrid grin
And Wolfie said, “May I come in?”

And so begins the alternative version of Little Red Riding Hood, as written by one of the best children’s authors of all time. Roald Dahl had a wicked sense of humour, as can be seen throughout his work from the autobiographical Boy to the tongue in cheek Vicar of Nibbleswick.

But it’s in his poetry anthology, Revolting Rhymes – a book outrageously absent from many school libraries – that his humour reaches its pinnacle.

What children will learn:

• What makes a poem sound like a poem
• How to find rhyming words for your poem and invent rhyming words if you can’t
• How to turn a well-known story into a poem

Dave Lewis is a former Teaching Award winner, has taught in primary schools in the UK for 18 years and is now a headteacher in Cyprus. He worked with the RSA on their Opening Minds project and has had education articles published in the UK and Europe.

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