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George’s Marvellous Medicine writing challenge

Roald Dahl activities at home

This challenge is inspired by George’s Marvellous Medicine. Any budding young chefs will find this one lots of fun!

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! When Grandma swallows it she grows extremely tall and bursts through the roof.

For this challenge, encourage your child to write a recipe for a magical potion. They should include the following things:

  • A list of ingredients – these can be as wacky as they like!
  • Step-by-step instructions
  • A description of the potion’s magical powers!

Help your child if they want to make their potion in real life and remind them that it is not edible!

Bonus activity

Make a video with your child to teach people how to make their potion! They could act out each step and talk about the magical powers of the recipe.

Top tips

  • Watch this video from BBC Bitesize for tips on writing a recipe or set of instructions.
  • Listen to the start of George’s Marvellous Medicine on Soundcloud or download the Roald Dahl app to listen to the first chapter for free.