Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Word Inventing Activity

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Readers love Willy Wonka’s (of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) mouth-watering sweet inventions. The author, Roald Dahl, emphasizes invention in this story and not just with savory candies; he also invents delicious words. Words such as scrumdiddlyumptious, hornswogglers, snozzwangers, and whangdoodles. They’re silly, absurd, wacky and 100% invented words! We’ve been inspired by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to create our own word inventions with this fun word inventing activity!

So put your own zany inventor’s hat on. It’s time to take apart words and put them back together in new, gibberish ways!

But before we start, I’d like to wish you a VERY HAPPY Roald Dahl month to you!

Roald Dahl Month

Charlie and the Chocolate Word Inventing Activity

1. Cut out words from old magazines, newspapers, or junk mail.
Longer words are better for this word inventing activity since the words can be split up into more parts. You’ll do that next. Get a large pile of words before you move on to the next step.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Word Inventing Activity

2. Cut apart the words and sort by prefix, root, and suffix.
Use colored paper and print out the three pages for your sort. Printable here.
Cut apart your words as best you can into the following categories. Adults, you may need to teach this first, then help with the sorting process. If you don’t remember what these word parts are, here’s a brief reminder:

SUFFIX:
Cut off the endings and put those in the suffix category. Suffix examples: -s, -ing, -ed, -ion, -y, -ish, -less.

PREFIX: 
Is there a prefix on the word? That is the beginning of words that can be removed and aren’t words by themselves. Prefix examples: pre-, un-, anti-, mis-, super-.

ROOT:
A root word is a word that has meaning all by itself. You can make new words with a root word by adding a prefix or suffix or both to the root.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Word Inventing Activity

3. Invent your own NEW and WACKY words. Just like Roald Dahl.
Now it’s time for inventing words! Take prefix, root, and or suffix. Combine into something zany and unique.

Here are our new word inventions so far: dangeration, aweartsome, coolive, and imagincakes.
Printable here.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Word Inventing Activity

Have fun with your word inventions.

Who knows, maybe next you’ll want to use your new words in a story of your own.

Keep track of all your Roald Dahl books and reviews.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Word Inventing Activity

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Word Inventing Activity

GO TO: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Scrumdiddlyumptious Candy Experiments

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