Chocolate Galore!

It all began with a surprise delivery from the one and only Willy Wonka! He had sent each class a gloriumptious (glorious and wonderful) box of Wonka Bars. However, the letter that accompanied the bars delivered a disappointing message. Mr Wonka explained that he loved sending his mighty chocolatiers out to visit children, sharing his secrets and inspiring their chocolate creations, but he had heard that some, in fact many, grotbagging (mischievous) children had been gobbledygooking (gossiping) and giving away his precious secrets!

The letter explained that the teachers had to think carefully before handing out the chocolate bars. Did they think the children could be trusted to meet his wondiferous (fantastic) chocolatier and attend his spectacular chocolate workshop? If they thought a child could be trusted, that child would find a Golden Ticket hidden within the silver wrapping and this ticket would give them entry to the workshop. If the teacher thought the child would betray the fantabulous Mr Wonka, then no Golden Ticket would be laying within the wrapper.

The teachers slowly made their way around the rooms, carefully distributing the Wonka bars. The rooms were bursting with emotions – euphoria that each child may receive a Golden Ticket, but anxiety that some may not. At last, all the bars were distributed and the children frantically ripped open the wrappers and to their delight, they realised EVERYONE had been awarded a Golden Ticket and all the children would be able to attend the workshop.

On Thursday 23rd and Friday 24th, the children came through the school gates, jubilantly waving their tickets in the air. Their eyes were aglow with excitement at the thought of the day ahead and at last they were able to meet The Chocolatier.

Every single minute of the visit was jam packed with whoopsy wiffling (great), chocolatey wonder. The children sat staring in awe as the chocolate master explained where chocolate comes from and showed them footage of the cocoa beans being produced. The children then jumped into action as they used drama (and machetes!) to act out the growing and harvesting process.

They then learned all about Fairtrade and they loved taking on the roles of those farmers who were well looked after and treated fairly. However, the children who were not dealing with a Fairtrade buyer enjoyed the process slightly less as the ruthless buyer slashed his payments to increase his own profits!

After that, the children learnt about the ingredients used to make different types of chocolate, and although they were pleased to find out dark chocolate had some healthy aspects, they were shocked and devastated to find out that not only is white chocolate incredibly bad for them, but it actually contains no chocolate at all! It’s just milk, sugar and fat!

Then it was time for the children to become chocolatiers themselves. The Chocolatier gave the children a selection of ingredients (rice crispies, cookie dots, rainbow drops, dried banana, sultanas, oats and tiny marshmallows) and set them the challenge of creating a new scrumptious and phizz-whizzing (brilliant) chocolate bar for Mr Wonka. Each child carefully selected and arranged their ingredients in wonderiferous designs, before transferring them to their moulds. Once the bottom layer was in place, The Chocolatier drizzled sumptuous molten chocolate over the ingredients and then each chocolatier added their second layer of ingredients. The children’s eyes were filled with wonder, excitement and anticipation as they waited for their chocolate bars to set, and it was positively torturous when the teachers told them they had to wait til they got home to devour them.

Wow! What a week! And what a whoopsy-splunkers (fantastic) start to the term!