World Class World Book Day Ideas!

​World Book Day?!? Why not make it a week? The thought of just a day to celebrate makes me a little sad so I like to take a full week off timetable and plan everything around our book. (Don’t worry, you can still get all areas of the curriculum covered just takes a little creativity) You can find examples at the end of this article.

​First Job - Finding the right book!

We don’t know about you but we find it nearly impossible to find a book to suit all ages so we’ve taken a difference stance: Pick a theme not a book. This works really well as it gives teachers the freedom to plan and deliver imaginative and exciting lessons around a book that suits their age group rather than forcing connections. Some successful themes we’ve used: Animals, Superheroes, Magic, Space and Journeys.

​Now - Time to build some excitement!

​One of the main struggles teachers face is getting children to develop a love of reading or motivating them to write. So often this is can be overcome by creating an environment that excites and fosters their imagination and curiosity. 

Step 1: Invite authors, storytellers or theatre companies to join the fun.

There’s nothing better than hearing a story come to life by the person who wrote it or discovering where an author’s weird and wonderful ideas came from or exploring how to actually make a book. With so many self-published authors around children need to know that there’s nothing stopping them becoming an author too.
​
We know this can be costly so if it’s really not an option- why not invite parents or relatives in to share their favourite book? Children LOVE being read to no matter how old. 

Step 2: Create Competitions

• Extreme Reading! - Find the most weird and wonderful place to read a book then take a picture. Our highlights: riding an ostrich, feeding an elephant and inside a washing machine.
  

• So you think you can write? - Create a free choice writing competition give them an exciting stimulus & let their creative juices flow in any form they like.
  

• Golden Ticket - hide golden tickets in some of the books in the library. If a child discovers one share a prize.
  

• Break a world record - use world book day to do something unique.
  

• Set a reading challenge - If your school has Accelerated Reader why not set the children the challenge to read 3 million words in a week then give daily updates. Or, use our own FREE Reading Challenges available to download from our website!​
  

• How many ways to read challenge - ‘read to a pet, read upside down, read on a bus, etc’ receive an award when they achieve them all. 

Step 3: Promote a love of literacy 

• DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) - It’s a magical moment when the music plays and everybody stops, picks up a book and reads for just 10 minutes
• Teacher swap - sometimes a fresh face is all it takes. Why not try teaching a different year group or share a story with another class.
• Invite a book fair in to sell books throughout the week
• Fancy dress – need we say more? You could always try dressing up a potato as your favourite character instead
• Buddy reading - We are an advocate for this all the time but why not take your class to another year group and share some of their amazing writing from the week.
• Book exchange - Got an old book? Bring it in and swap it with a friend
• Give writing a purpose - Will they publish it as a book? Turn it into a role play? Record it for the school radio’s storytelling hour? Create a movie trailer for it? Whatever it is make sure there is a reason for writing. 

​Need a theme idea?

Try the tried and tested MAGIC theme!

Science

Reversible and irreversible changes

Design & Tech.

Design and make own wand.
 
Create a smoothie for chosen potion

Book
Harry Potter

English
​
Poetry 
writing spells for new powers.
 
Instruction writing how to be a better wizard & how to make a potion.
 
Character description create a new monster for Harry to face.

​Maths

Measures 
measuring capacity and mass of ingredients for different spells
 
÷ and × by 10, 100, 100 to convert amounts

PE

Innovate a game of Quidditch