Celebrate World Book Day

World Book Day is an initiative that aims to promote the importance of reading among young children. UNESCO created the annual celebration in 1995. In the UK and Ireland, World Book Day is celebrated on the first Thursday of March. This year it falls on March 2nd, 2023. 

Celebrating World Book Day is a great way to kindle the love for reading and books in your children - a love that can go the extra mile and really change the course of their lives.

Whether you are looking to plan a themed party for World Book Day or just want some simple and creative ideas to plan some activities with your own kids and a few close friends, you can be sure to find some inspiration in this list of ideas we have put together. So, let’s dig in:

1. Dress up as your favourite character:

This one is sure to be a hit with kids of all ages. It’s always fun to dress up and take on the identity of a favourite character. Encourage kids to get creative and think through what character inspires them, who they would like to be and read up on that character and the traits that define it. There are endless possibilities here from the popular Harry Potter and Hermoine Granger, Sherlock Holmes and Matilda to characters like The Gruffalo, The Rainbow Fish and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. 

Keep it simple and get kids involved in making their own costumes from common materials that are easily available like chart papers, cardboard, construction paper, buttons, ribbons, foil, paint and markers etc. Remember this activity is all about the fun and getting kids involved. Don’t stress over perfection. Organize a little meetup with kids dressing up as their favourite characters or do a little parade across the neighbourhood. An activity like this is sure to give you loads of great photos and memories.

2. Act out a play:

If you’ve got the kids all dressed up as their favourite characters, another great activity to add would be to put on a play on some of the scenes from their favourite books. This activity can be done with or without dressing up. Let kids choose the scenes they would like to act out and allow the creativity and energy to flow. This gives a great dip into theatre arts! And every kid loves a bit of pretend play and imitating dialogues and moves from their favourite book!

3. Write a letter to your favourite book character:

What would it be like to talk to your favourite character? We bet that’s something we have all wondered. What would we say? What would we ask them? 

This is a great activity to get kids reflecting, thinking and writing! Yay!

Give kids a few prompt questions to get them brainstorming about who they would want to write a letter to, what they would like to share, and what questions they would like to ask. Help them write the letter, print it, decorate it and post it in a mailbox. 

4. Make a bookmark:

This is a simple craft activity that you can execute from materials already available at home. It’s a great opportunity for kids to get creative and use colors, paints and stickers to make their own creations. You can get kids to make extra bookmarks to share with their friends. 

5. Write your own book:

While this may sound like a big project, it’s something you can start on World Book Day or lead up to it, aiming to complete it by the date. This is a great activity to enhance your child’s creativity, writing, imagination and storytelling skills. Keep it simple and aim to write a short story. Get your child to choose a theme of their own or model after their favourite book, come up with a storyline, draw a story board and write the story. If they want to get more creative they can illustrate their own story as well or try different digital animation tools online to create their own book that is sure to wow all their friends. And how exciting to have a book with their own name as the author! 

6. Bake your favourite character:

Drawing your favourite book character may be intuitive, but how about stepping outside of the box and actually baking your favourite character? This a great way to sharpen those culinary skills and prepare some treats while you are at it! Choose a character you can easily shape and bake and bake some cookies or a cake. Get creative (and messy!) with the decorations and icings and you can have fun in the kitchen. Share the treats with your friends, family and neighbours with a nice message about Wolrd Book Day

7. Hold a reading circle:

If you are surrounded by lots of libraries and activities, you may already have access to many reading circles and read-alouds. But if you aren’t and would like to arrange your own, it’s quite easy to do. Get a few of your kids friends together and go read at the park or at home. Let the kids pick their favourite books and read out a passage from them or read them out to them. You can also find any authors that reside in your locality and invite them over for a read-aloud. 

8. Organize a book sale:

We are all guilty of having more books than we have shelf space, aren’t we? This can be a great opportunity to sift through your shelves and maybe make room for more books you would want to get! Maybe your kids are older and you would like to take out some of the books you have aimed at younger audiences or maybe you have read some books multiple times and would love to make room for new ones. Whatever the motivation, organizing a book sale is a great way to celebrate World Book Day.

You can organize it in your own yard or garage or get together a group of friends to contribute books to sell. Add in some of your baked characters or bookmarks and put those on sale as well. You can use the proceeds to buy new books or contribute to your favourite charity. This can be a great exercise in entrepreneurship for your kids, at the same time kindling a love for books and reading!

9. Arrange a book exchange:

If a full book sale isn’t something you can handle, you can also arrange a small book exchange with friends. Get your kids to select a book from their shelves that they would like to give to a friend. Make sure the book is in good condition and is something they would like to receive themselves. Then wrap the book up and stick a card stating who it is from. On the day of the book exchange, draw names from a box and go and gift the book to the person whose name you draw. Your child also receives a new book in the exchange!

10. Share a World Book Day goody bag:

Whether you arrange a small meet up, party or just want to share some joy with loved ones, a goody bag is a great way to share the love for books and inspire kids to read more. You can make goody bags with different items like markers, pencils, chocolate book favours, book marks, dry erase reading logs and planners. small books and some treats. 

Conclusion:

There you have it!

A collection of creative ideas to celebrate World Book Day with your children. Unlock curiosity and a fascination for reading with different activities that are sure to keep your little ones creatively occupied and yearning for more. Fostering a love for reading in little hearts is a goal many parents have. What better day to do this than World Book Day!