World Book Day is on 2nd March 2023, and I’m here to help you with 75 World Book Day activities (that don’t involve dressing up!)
The history
World Book Day was founded by UNESCO in 1995 with the mission to promote reading for pleasure. Recognising that reading for pleasure is the biggest indicator of future success, regardless of socio-economic backgrounds, World Book Day aim to transform lives by enabling every child the opportunity to have a book of their own, thanks to their free book tokens.
It has become tradition for children to dress up as a favourite book character, take part in World Book Day activities in school and take home a book token to spend either on a World Book Day book, rendering it free, or to put towards the value of a book of their choice.
Why dress-up?
Originally conceived as an idea to engage reluctant readers with reading, dressing up had good intentions and when left as the only activity for World Book Day, it misses the mark entirely. Yes, dressing up can be fun, but imagine if you are a reluctant reader and you don’t have a favourite book character- what then? Or consider that we’re in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis and you can’t afford a costume? Or you don’t want to buy a costume that will likely be worn once and then end up in landfill? Or your parent or guardian doesn’t have the time or resources to make you one?
Unfortunately, dressing up can become yet another activity that separates those who can from those who can’t.
So whilst it can be fun, it’s not always inclusive… and it’s not the only thing that World Book Day is about.
Focusing on the intention of World Book Day
So, when we recentre our focus on the purpose and intention of World Book Day, to promote reading for pleasure, then we need to focus on 2 main things:
– Making it accessible
– Making it enjoyable
So let’s take a look at World Book Day activities you can complete across the curriculum to really make the most of the day.
75 World Book Day activities
Reading activities for World Book Day:
– Shared reading with a book buddy
– Hold a Book Tournament to find out the favourite book of the year (I love this one by Catherine Reed- The Brown Bag Teacher)
– Host a blind date with a book
– Have a book tasting (check out this example by Literacy with Miss P)
– Create a library drive-thru with cardboard box cars and cushions
– Read to a pet
– Read the children’s bestseller from the month and year you were born
Writing activities for World Book Day:
– Turn your favourite story into a a short (500 words) or mini (100 words) story
– Retell a story from another viewpoint
– Create a travel brochure to persuade tourists to stay in a fantasy land
– Write a prequel/sequel to your favourite story
– Turn a story into a play
– Write a cross-over story by sending a favourite character into another story. What would happen?
– Write to your favourite author thanking them for writing your favourite book.
– What if? What if a crucial moment hadn’t happened in the story? How would that affect the plot? Write an alternative version, taking the character down a different path.
Maths activities for World Book Day:
– Survey your friends to find out: how many words on a page? How many pages in a book? What is their favourite genre? Collect and represent the data using tables and charts.
– How many words do you read? Read for 5 minutes and count how many words you read. What if you read for 5 minutes every day- what would that be in a week? A month? A year? What if it was 10/20/30 minutes?
– Measure- how long is my page? How far would it reach if I laid out all the pages in my book?
– What is the area of my page? What if I laid out all the pages on the floor? How much space would that take up? What shapes could I make with the pages on the floor?
– Count up the consonants and vowels on each page- can you represent this data as a fraction/decimal/percentage?
– Make a board game of your book
– Research the Dewey Decimal System- how does it work? Can you organise the non-fiction books so they’re in the right order?
– Number scavenger hunt- search to find numbers in your book (not page numbers!)
Science activities for World Book Day:
– Make a shadow puppet theatre and retell a story
– Design a set for a scene in your story and create a circuit to light it
– Explore famous female scientists in the Little People, Big Dreams Women In Science books
– Explore animals (real and fictional) and their habitats. How are they adapted to suit living in their environments?
– Design your own animal and explain how it is adapted to live in its habitat
– Explore light and mirrors by using a mirror to draw a reflected version of your book’s front cover
– Make a magnet theatre and retell a story using cardboard puppets with magnets
– Look at animals in stories and create food chains and life cycle diagrams
Computing activities for World Book Day:
– Create an audiobook recording
– Make a computer game using ideas from your book
– Use Chatterpix to record how characters are feeling in picture books
– Create a book quiz using Powerpoint or Kahoot
– Make a stop-motion animation for a scene in your book
– Use Scratch to make story book animations
– Use Jamboard to look at the blurb or passage from a book and ask students to add virtual post-it notes to share their thoughts, inferences and predictions
– Create a theatrical trailer for a book
History activities for World Book Day:
– Read a book from as many different decades as you can
– Research your favourite authors and collect information to compile a biography about them
– Create a timeline of events that happen in your book
– Find and play with toys from children’s books from the past 100 years. How were they played with? Rate them.
– Research the historical period your book is set in.
– Send a character into the past- how would that affect them?
Geography activities for World Book Day:
– Read around the world- how many countries can you visit through your books?
– World scavenger hunt- how many places can you find referenced in your books?
– Explore maps in books. Compare maps of fictional places to maps in atlases and non-fiction books
– Draw your own map for a fantasy story
– Explore biomes through books. Can you explore them all?
– Research to find the children’s bestsellers across the world
– Use books to spark conversations about environmental issues.
Social-emotional learning activities for World Book Day:
– Use drama to explore characters’ emotions
– Demonstrate the impact of bullying in stories by giving each child a piece of paper. Every time a character’s feelings are hurt, scrunch it up. Can you smooth it out and make it perfect again at the end of the story?
– Write a letter of encouragement to a character facing a tough time
– Risky decisions- use drama to step into a story to advise a character against doing something risky
– Explore peer pressure in stories- where does it happen? How does it make us feel? What can we do?
– Create a colouring-in sheet based on your book for others to enjoy. Photocopy and share.
– Heroes in books- explore the characters that inspire your students. Discuss what makes them inspirational and human.
– Resilience- what do you do when you fail? Explore authors’ journeys to publication. How many times did they get rejected? What did they do to overcome these barriers and challenges?
Music activities for World Book Day:
– Write a book-themed song
– Have a book character rap battle
– Create a composition to represent a fairy tale (or another genre)
– Learn songs from musicals
– Turn your story into verse for a song
Art activities for World Book Day:
– Retell a story as a graphic novel
– Make a story crown
– Make a story map
– Build a story sack using a pillowcase and wooden spoons
– Paint your favourite characters onto potatoes (instead of eggs)
– Make a poster using your favourite passage from a book
– Make a pop-up version of your book
– Make a reading river to showcase your reading for pleasure journey
How to get your World Book Day tokens
Valid from 16th February- 26th March 2023, World Book Day will send out book tokens to nurseries, schools, magazines and partners. Children can choose to spend their book token on one of the £1 books and audiobooks, making the purchase of a book completely free, or, put it towards the total of a book of their choice.
So there we go, 75 ideas across the curriculum to help you celebrate the magic of books this World Book Day. And if you really want to dress up, why not get comfy? Grab your dressing gown, slippers, bring in a pillow or blanket, and have a cosy reading session.
Until next time,
