Use these easy book-themed activities to celebrate World Book Day with your children.
50 easy World Book Day activities
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This helpful guide will tell you how to set up and run a children’s book club successfully. It includes tips on how to get children to join your book club, how to structure a kids’ book club meeting, and book activities to enjoy together.
Plus: get a printable set of book discussion questions that work for any book!
This book club guide is perfect for teachers, parents, homeschoolers and library staff.
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World Book Day is a celebration of books, stories, and reading that takes place each year in March. In 2023 World Book Day will be on Thursday 2nd March.
Many home-educating groups, schools, and early years settings celebrate with book-themed events and invite their children (& parents / staff!) to dress up as their favourite book character.
You can have lots of fun theming a whole day, or a whole week of activities around books.
You can use these ideas for easy World Book Day activities to share the love of reading right across the curriculum.
Download your World Book Day Kit
Save time and teach better with our World Book Day Unit. Download your kit here and you’ll have a set of lessons and activities for World Book Day all ready to go.
The lessons are already planned for you. All you need to do is download the kit, use the bonus printables and you are ready to go!
You and your children will be able to:
:: build a book nook
:: enjoy a variety of reading events
:: talk about books using the printable Book Club Questions that work with any book
:: tell stories with a Story Telling Tin
:: make your own non-fiction book – with bonus printable
:: create a story world for hands-on play and storytelling
:: play book-themed games including book-themed math activities
:: make and share bookmarks – bonus printable included
Click here to get your World Book Day Unit now and you’ll be ready to lead a super celebration of World Book Day!
CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR WORLD BOOK DAY UNIT
the easy solution for a fun World Book Day Celebration!
Give reading a special place in your kids’ lives
Of course you can read anywhere, but creating a special place to read shows just how wonderful books are. It’s very simple to set up a book nook – all you really need is a place to sit and some books – but adding in some extra special touches can make a little reading den that children love to visit. You can make a book nook…
and add in this 23 reasons to read printable poster to decorate your space!
Re-tell well known stories through play
Use props and loose parts as an invitation for children to re-tell the stories they know.
You can tell stories:
with printable story telling kits
with Fairy Tale fridge magnets
with Story Stones
with storytelling cards
with a story telling tin
with a story maps
with The Very Hungry Caterpillar activities
More World Book Day activities
Try these math activities all about books
Play the Guess Who game and see if you can work out who the book character is
Host a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party
or a Gruffalo party
Role play The Three Bears
Bake a Gingerbread Man
Play with a Billy Goats Gruff sensory tub
Go on a Bear Hunt
Play Are You My Mother?
Act out Lost and Found
Play in an Out of the Ocean sensory tub
Make Brown Bear, Brown Bear shadow puppets
Have afternoon tea with Charlie and Lola
Act out the Little Blue Truck
Grown your own beanstalk
Become your favourite book character
Be Captain Hook with these 35+ pirate activities
Be Pippi Longstocking and make a Museum of Turnupstuffing
Be Strega Nona
Be an elf for the shoemaker
Be Ottoline
Bring some of your favourite books to life with art and crafts
with printable bookmarks
with The Very Hungry Caterpillar crafts
with Peg Doll puppets
with The Tiger Who Came to Tea finger puppet
Make a Wild Thing mask
Encourage children to write books of their own
With a non-fiction book printable
Combine art and storytelling and make an Incy Wincy book
Take the first line of your favourite tale and write your own ending
Write a story on the wings of a bird
Put yourself in a story with speech bubbles
Fill in the blanks of an easel story
Download your ready-made World Book Day Kit
The first Thursday in March is World Book Day, a day to celebrate books, stories and reading. Download your copy of the Play Academy’s ready-made World Book Day Unit and you’ll be all set to lead an engaging World Book Day celebration with your children.
These lesson plans for World Book Day include cross-curricular activities for all your children:
:: build a book nook
:: tell stories with a storytelling tin or story spinners
:: make your own non-fiction book
:: create a story world
:: play book-themed Guess Who? and math games
:: make book marks
Bonus World Book Day thematic unit printables
The Play Academy’s thematic units come with practical printables that make the lessons more engaging for your children and easier for you to teach.
No need to go searching for printables to accompany your lessons, they’re all included when you download your chosen unit.
In this World Book Day Unit you’ll receive these bonus printables:
:: a set of Book Club Questions for Any Book
:: a cut-out-and-play Goldilocks storytelling kit
:: colour-in Bookmarks printables
How to download this World Book Day thematic unit
You can download this unit along with over 50 more from NurtureStore’s Play Academy.
If you are already of the Play Academy, you can download this unit straight away from our Library here.
If you are not yet a member, find out more and choose your first unit here. Your teaching is about to get a whole lot easier!
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I actually really like the idea of making a World Book! Not necessarily exactly what you suggested, but maybe a culmination of things you suggested. Kind of like a keepsake of all the history lessons with craft/story pages. Hmmm… My wheels in my brain are turning.
That sounds like a great project Angela – it could be amazing! Let me know if you try it.
Thank you for this. Am a new teacher in this primary school and was lost as to what to do about the soon coming World book Day…
Hope you have a great celebration Susan.
I stumbled on your page and now I have cartwheels turning in my brain due to so many ideas! I really needed this NOW! Thanks!
Brilliant, Idayat. Enjoy Book Day!
I love the great ideas. Looking forward to another exciting WBD 2021. Thanks for sharing your ideas
We are a homeschool family and are so excited to take part in celebrating world book day!! Thanks for all the ideas!
Have a fun celebration Kirby!
Thanks we have bookday coming and I will surely make use of your ideas.
hi, i came across this site today world book day and all still relevant , great thoughts you put together here , thanks , am planning trying some cou[le of ideas
Thanks Tolu. Have a fun day!