Early years activity: World Book Day
World Book Day is an annual celebration that offers a chance to celebrate children’s favourite story books and characters. Our activity encourages children to share books they cherish while discovering the favourites of others too.
World Book Day learning aims
- Share children’s favourite stories
- Express preferences
- Build a sense of self and belonging
- Share experiences of story telling
- Extend vocabulary.
Resources you will need for this activity
- A range of story books to read together
- A quiet reading space.
World Book Day activity outline
- Prior to the day, ask parents to share their child’s favourite stories they read at home. Ask them to send the book or a transcript/explanation of the story so you can talk about it with their child on World Book Day
- Find a quiet, comfortable space to sit with the children and their books
- Encourage each child to share their favourite book with the group and retell the key plot moments to their group. Talk about the book and what makes the story their favourite. Find out who their favourite characters are. Discuss what kind of story it is (happy, scary, sad, real-life etc.). Link elements of the story to children’s everyday experiences, e.g. feeling sad or happy
- Talk about your own favourite story book and why you like it
- Invite the children to take a photo of each other, holding their favourite story books so that you can create a display which the children can refer to and talk to each other about books they enjoy.
How to extend this activity
- Keep the favourite stories for the week and offer children a chance to tell their favourite story at storytime.
NDNA products to support you with this activity
Creative Storytelling in the Early Years - Online course
Disclaimer: Activities with children must always be risk assessed, including for allergies or choking. Children must always have adequate supervision. Resources and materials must always be appropriate for children’s age and stage of development.
