The Twits

The Twits by Roald Dahl

Twit are the smelliest, nastiest, ugliest people in the world. They hate everything—except playing mean jokes on each other, catching innocent birds to put in their Bird Pies, and making their caged monkeys, the Muggle-Wumps, stand on their heads all day.

Main Focus: Character Study - Mr Twit

Your KS2 class will read the extracts taken from Chapters 2 and 3 to learn more about Mr Twit.

Your class will then condense this information to create a character profile of what they have learnt. They can write about Mr Twit or they can draw him.

Main Focus: Spelling

There are lots of spelling mistakes in this extract! Your class will begin by highlighting all the mistakes and then write the correct spelling.

There are general words misspelled in the resources as well as some incorrect homophones.

Main Focus: Inverted Commas

In this activity linked to Roald Dahl’s The Twits, your KS2 class will read through the passage and look for direct speech.

Once your kids find the speech, they must add in inverted commas to show where the speech begins and ends.

We have differentiated this resource a number of ways for cater for Year 3 and Year 4.

Main Focus: Instructional Writing

Instructions tell us how to do something, for example how to bake a cake, fix a problem or play a game. It is important that instructions are written clearly and in the correct order, so that they can be easily understood and followed. Written instructions often include an imperative (or command) verb at the beginning of each sentence. These verbs tell the reader what to do.

This set of instructions explains Mr Twit’s method for catching birds to put into Mrs Twit’s bird pie and also Mrs Twit’s ‘Wormy Spaghetti’.

Scroll through this resource based on chapter 7 of The Twits and choose which would best suit your KS2 class.

Main Focus: Comprehension - Chapters 15-17

This is a comprehension linked to chapters 15-17 of The Twits and is aimed at Year 3 and Year 4.

Your class will read the chapters and answer the questions  in the resources provided. We have differentiated this resource so you can choose which best suits your class.

Main Focus: Apostrophes

This resource focuses on apostrophes and your class will determine where an apostrophe should be included. Your Ks2 class will also decide why the apostrophe has been used, to either show possession or for a contraction. 

Main Focus: Tenses

In this activity linked to The Twits, your class will identify the verbs within the sentences and then explore past and present tense words. 

We have differentiated this resource to cater for Year 3 and Year 4 classes.

Main Focus: Word Class

This resource focuses on noun, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Your class will choose a colour for each word class and find them in the sentences from chapter 18 of The Twits.

We have differentiated the activity for Year 3 and Year 4 to reduce the amount of word classes the children need to focus on.

Main Focus: Synonyms

This activity focuses on synonyms to use instead of ‘said’.

Synonyms are words which have the same or similar meanings. We can use synonyms to make our writing more interesting. Your class will read the extract from the story and highlight all of the synonyms for said.

The other resource involves your class replacing the word said with a range of synonyms. 

Main Focus: Writing a Summary

This KS2 resource has been differentiated four ways and focuses on chapter 22-27 of The Twits and creating a summary.

A summary is a short retelling of a story or idea. It does not include every detail but focuses on the main points.

This is a summary of a trick that Mrs Twit played on her husband: 

• Mrs Twit dug up some worms from the garden and carried them into the house in a tin.
• She cooked spaghetti for lunch.
• She mixed the worms in with her husband’s spaghetti and covered them with tomato sauce and cheese.
• Mr Twit ate the meal but did not enjoy it.
• He was shocked to find out that he had eaten worms.

After your class have read chapters 22-27, they write a summary of Muggle-Wump’s clever plan. They must remember to include all of the main points.