Get Kids Reading with Roald Dahl Books at McDonald’s

With Roald Dahl being a much loved children’s author and one of the world’s greatest storytellers, it is only fitting that his books are part of McDonald’s Happy Meals for the next few weeks.  This project comes as part of McDonald’s #HappyReaders initiative, which aims to increase book ownership amongst children and encourage both parents and children to find the joy in reading!

This exclusive series of books which has been available since 13th September (Roald Dahl Day) and will be inside Happy Meals for 5 weeks from then.  The series features his fantastical characters from three of his best loved stories, Matilda, The BFG and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Each book features an extract from the original story, along with Quentin Blake’s iconic illustrations, activities, stickers and a bookmark that can be popped out from the back to help kids keep their place in the book.

Featuring some of the best loved characters over the years, the titles available are:

  • Roald Dahl’s Wonderful Mr Willy Wonka
  • Roald Dahl’s Lucky Charlie Bucket
  • Roald Dahl’s Mischievous Chocolate Factory Children
  • Roald Dahl’s Amazing Matilda
  • Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Miss Honey
  • Roald Dahl’s Rotsome Giants
  • Roald Dahl’s Brave Little Sophie
  • Roald Dahl’s Fantabulous BFG

It’s really important to read with children, whether it’s you reading aloud to them, or them reading to you.  It could even be that you take turns which is what I often do with my 6yr old to maintain his enthusiasm and keep him going through the book.  It’s also a great time to bond together and you’ll find you end up talking about what’s going on, discuss pictures in the book and actually have a lot of fun

Here are 6 top tips for reading with children:

  1. Bring the story to life by using different voices for the characters. Try out a     pompous tone for Augustus, or a high, whiny voice for Veruca.
  2. Make your child the author! Stop at exciting moments in the story and ask your child to invent what happens next.
  3. Make reading with your child a special time for you both every day.
  4. Children of all ages love to hear stories read aloud.
  5. Don’t stop reading to your children just because they can read by themselves.
  6. Let your child help choose the books that you’ll read together. If your child is excited by the subject, the story will hold their interest better.

My children have really enjoyed reading these #HappyReaders books and love the little press out book mark to keep their page when putting the book down.  Being fairly small they are not daunting and encourage children to want to read them.  We share reading the stories to give them some practice but to also let them sit back and relax whilst I read.

You can see Peter Andre launching the books in the Happy Meals at McDonald’s here:

If you haven’t already, take your children to McDonald’s so they can enjoy one of these fun books to enhance and encourage their reading!

This is a sponsored post on behalf of McDonald’s.

The Dahlicious Dress Up day at school – Roald Dahl fun!

Today Miss M’s school is holding The Dahlicious Dress Up Day – a fun way to raise money for Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity.  So the idea is to dress up as a character from any of Roald Dahl’s fantastic books and pay of a donation of £1 which goes towards the Roald Dahl day charity.

Miss M was a little unenthusiastic at first not really knowing who Roald Dahl was, although when I explained that he was the author who wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – a film she loves to watch, her interest grew.  We had a look online at all the different titles he had written to see what she fancied dresses up as.  And we decided upon a witch to fit in with his book The Witches.

DSCF5100We arrived for school to find a total of ten girls in her class had chosen to come along as witches!!  Amongst all the witches I spotted Oompa Loompa’s, a Willy Wonka chocolate bar (yes really!) and grandpa Joe (Charlie’s grandpa).  What a wonderful display of characters and a fabulous Roald Dahl day had at by all at the school concluding in a whole school assembly for everyone to celebrate their fabulous outfits and charity success!!