Looking for an engaging novel for your 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade ELA curriculum? The Chocolate Touch by Patrick Skene Catling is a fun, fast-paced chapter book that can turn reading time into meaningful lessons in reading comprehension, vocabulary, character development, and critical thinking.
In this classic story, John Midas discovers a magical chocolate bar that turns everything he touches into chocolate. What begins as an exciting discovery quickly becomes a problem as John learns that getting everything you want isn’t always as wonderful as it seems.
That combination of humor, fantasy, and an important life lesson makes The Chocolate Touch an excellent choice for an upper-elementary novel study.
Why Teach The Chocolate Touch?
🍫 It’s Highly Engaging
The magical premise immediately gives students something to wonder about. What would happen if everything you touched turned into chocolate?
The fast-moving story and imaginative situations make The Chocolate Touch an easy book to use for a whole-class novel, read-aloud, small-group reading, or independent reading unit.
📚 It Builds Reading Comprehension
The Chocolate Touch novel study provides plenty of opportunities for students to practice comprehension skills while reading an engaging story.
Students can work on:
- Identifying important story details
- Making predictions and inferences
- Summarizing chapters
- Identifying the problem and solution
- Analyzing characters
- Understanding cause and effect
- Determining theme
- Supporting answers with evidence from the text
Because the story is entertaining, students practice these skills with a book they actually want to keep reading.
✏️ It Provides Vocabulary Practice
The Chocolate Touch is also a great opportunity to introduce students to new vocabulary in context.
Rather than simply memorizing definitions, students can examine how words are used in the story and use context clues to develop their understanding.
Vocabulary instruction can easily become part of your The Chocolate Touch book unit without taking away from the enjoyment of reading.
💭 It Encourages Deeper Thinking
John’s experience with the magical chocolate bar provides natural opportunities to discuss responsibility, greed, consequences, self-control, and moderation.
Students can consider questions such as:
- Would you want John’s magical ability? Why or why not?
- When does something good become too much of a good thing?
- How do John’s choices affect other people?
- What does John learn throughout the story?
- What is the author trying to teach readers?
These discussions help move students beyond simply remembering what happened in the book and toward higher-level thinking and literary analysis.
📖 It Connects to Other Literature
The Chocolate Touch also provides a fun opportunity to make connections to other stories.
One especially interesting comparison is the Greek myth of King Midas, since both stories involve a character discovering that getting exactly what you want can have unexpected consequences.
You could also create a fun chocolate-themed reading unit by pairing The Chocolate Touch with books such as Chocolate Fever and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Make Teaching The Chocolate Touch Easier
If you’re looking for The Chocolate Touch activities, comprehension questions, vocabulary, assessments, and writing activities to go along with the book, I’ve created a complete The Chocolate Touch novel study designed to save teachers time.
The resource includes:
- Chapter-by-chapter comprehension
- Vocabulary activities
- Writing and extension activities
- Assessments
- Teacher lesson plans and answer keys
- Printable and digital materials
It’s designed for approximately two weeks of instruction and can be used with 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade students.
A FREE PREVIEW is available so you can see exactly what is included before purchasing.
🍫 Get the Complete The Chocolate Touch Novel Study
Instead of spending your time searching for individual The Chocolate Touch worksheets and activities, you can have a complete novel unit ready to use.
A Sweet Addition to Your ELA Curriculum
The Chocolate Touch is more than just a fun story about chocolate. It gives students opportunities to practice important reading comprehension, vocabulary, writing, character analysis, and critical-thinking skills while exploring themes they can connect to their own lives.
If you’re planning a The Chocolate Touch novel study for grades 3–5, this engaging classic can be a great addition to your upper-elementary reading curriculum.
Try a chocolate theme by incorporating The Chocolate Touch along with Chocolate Fever and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!
See what people are saying about the chocolate-themed novel studies by The Teaching Bank!
Save when buying all three novel studies together as a bundle!
Connect with Fellow Educators!
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