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Roald Dahl challenge week four: George's Marvellous Medicine

George's Marvellous Medicine

The fourth Roald Dahl challenge is inspired by George’s Marvellous Medicine for some magical recipe writing, and three lucky winners will receive a bundle of books.

The challenge

In the book, George is bullied and picked on by his Grandma so one day he swaps her medicine for a brown coloured homemade mixture with ingredients including floor polish, deodorant, and horse radish – yuck! When Grandma swallows it she grows extremely tall and bursts through the roof.

For this challenge we’d like children to write a recipe for their own magical potion! You need to include a list of ingredients, step-by-step instructions, and a description of its magical powers! Please be very careful when writing your recipe and remember that your potion is not edible in real life.

As a bonus, we will upload a video of the Middlesbrough Reads team attempting to make the winning entries.

This competition has now closed but feel free to do the activity anyawy!


Top tips

  • Watch this video from BBC Bitesize for top tips on writing a recipe or a set of instructions for a potion
  • Have a look at these lesson plans about George’s Marvellous Medicine. You’ll find recipes and potions from famous writers, extracts from the book, and tips on how to use techniques likes alliteration and onomatopoeias.
  • Listen to the opening of George’s Marvellous Medicine on Soundcloud, and download the Roald Dahl app to listen to the first chapter for free

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