World Book Day 2025
Hello Everyone,
I hope you are all enjoying the midterm break if you are off for all or at least some of this week. I have eight weeks to go until our newest addition arrives so I am trying to relax and rest as much as I can between now and then. I am off school at the moment but I love writing blog posts and sharing ideas so I am tipping away on this to keep me occupied!
As we all know, the number of ‘weeks’ and ‘days’ we need to celebrate in school are ever increasing, some schools lean into it more than others. As a teacher you can either embrace it or just do what you can with your class, and continue on with your day to day teaching. Some weeks I celebrate more than others. One of my favourites is Engineering Week, and another favourite is Literacy Week. We really celebrate Literacy Week in our school and have had some really lovely activities and visitors over the years. Lara loved it this year because an author visited their classroom. World Book Day is another day I enjoy celebrating. So some weeks I go all out and other weeks I do what I need to do and use the ideas sent out in the school email and that’s it. I will share here some ideas for World Book Day if you do celebrate it in your school.
Dress up as a character from your favourite book:
Students dress up as their favourite book characters. Encourage each student to give a short presentation about their character – their role in the story, what they like or dislike, and why they chose them.
Create Your Own Bookmarks:
Have students design bookmarks inspired by their favourite books or characters. This is a nice easy activity to do of a Friday afternoon!
Write Stories or a Class Book:
Have students write their own stories based on a World Book Day theme. For example, they could write a story about special pet or a brand-new hero for a book of their own. Students can share their stories with the class or even read them out to other classes in the school. You could also bind the stories into a class book that can be placed in the school library for everyone to enjoy.
Book Reviews:
Allow the students to work in pairs or small groups to create a book review. They can draw posters, create a video, or even act out a scene from the book they recommend. At the end of the lesson, host a “Book Swap” where students exchange their reviews and suggest books they think others would love.
Author Study:
Introduce your students to a well-known author whose work they can enjoy. You could focus on one author, like Roald Dahl, Julia Donaldson, or Michael Rosen, and learn about their life, writing process, and famous books, or Michael Morpurgo if you have older classes. Depending on your class level, they can create fact files or projects on a famous author of their choice.
Drama
Choose a short, action-packed scene from a well-loved book, and have students act it out. Again the book depends on your class level. This could be a pivotal moment in a story, such as a hero’s first victory or a character facing a big decision. Encourage students to use their creativity to bring the characters to life through expressions, gestures, and voices.
Poster Design:
For this activity, each student will create a poster for their own book. They can imagine they are the author of a brand new story and design a book cover, write a short blurb about their book, and include illustrations of key characters or scenes. Once they’ve completed their posters, have a launch afternoon where each student presents their book to the class, just like an author at a book signing event.
I have a resource which is suitable for 1st- 3rd class to help celebrate World Book Day. It is 15 pages in length and costs E2.50. https://www.muinteoirvalerie.com/product/world-book-day-resource/#tab-description