World Book Day is a fantastic way to promote reading and get your class to share their favourite stories and ideas. But how can you bring the wonder of books back into the classroom?
There are thousands of classroom games out there that children of all ages will love to play, that are perfect for World Book Day. Read on to get a few World Book Day game ideas and see how you can get your class talking about books! These games are perfect for weaving into lesson plans across the year too.
Celebrate World Book Day with classroom games
One of the best ways to bring World Book Day to the classroom is with a range of fantastic games that students are sure to love. From quizzes to dressing up as book characters, there are lots of ways you can help encourage your children to read more during World Book Day!
10 fun games for World Book Day
Themed activity packs
Books come in all sorts of themes, so it’s only right that your book-based games do too. From aliens to castles, the official World Book Day website offers a stellar range of themed activity packs perfect for classes looking to celebrate World Book Day.
Most packs are free to print off or can be loaded up on an interactive display to offer your class a fun and exciting way to celebrate books!
Bookmark making
We have all read a book that is so good you don’t want to risk dog-earing the corners of the pages. Offer your students a creative game by asking them to make a bookmark for themselves.
Not only will this encourage more reading, but it can also be a great way for the fledgling artists in your class to show off their drawing skills!
Book quiz
Quizzes can be an excellent way to help encourage students to learn about a range of different topics. As quizzes can include questions about anything, they are perfect for any World Book Day celebration.
A book quiz can either be customised to include your student’s favourite books or you can go to the World Book Day website to download a collection of free printable quizzes!
Costume making
Kids love dressing up, especially when they are dressing up as their favourite book character. Grab any old bits of linen or fabrics from your textiles department and let your students compete to see who can create the best costume of their favourite book character!
You can even offer rewards for different categories, such as sweets or even a new book to add to their collection. Just make sure to reward everyone for their participation!
Scene roleplay
Stomping around as the giant in Jack and the Beanstalk or creeping through the forest as Hansel & Gretel can be great fun and your students will love acting as their favourite story characters!
To add another layer to this, you can even ask your students to re-tell their favourite scenes in a whole new way. What would happen if the Big Bad Wolf couldn’t blow any of the houses down?
Book character ‘guess who?’
Playing book character ‘guess who?’ can be a great way to get your students playing story-based games together. Get your children to group up in pairs and challenge each other to a round of book character ‘guess who?’
The rules are simple, you just have to describe a book character to another person without mentioning names. If the other person can guess the character they win. Bonus points if you don’t mention which book the character is from!
Illustrate book scenes
Writing every day in class can become a chore, especially for younger students in KS1 and KS2. Break up the monotony of writing by asking your class to draw their favourite story events on paper or cards.
Children love an excuse to get out pencils and crayons, and World Book Day is the perfect opportunity to do so.
Book swap
Nothing comes close to discovering a whole new world through books, especially if it’s one your friends love. Book swaps are excellent ways to encourage children to read new stories and share their favourite stories!
Consider putting names in a hat and letting your class pick a person from the collection of names. Whoever they pick out is who they can swap a book with.
Make comic strips
There are a few fantastic books that already offer comic strips, such as Captain Underpants. But a great way to bring creativity to your class is to ask them to convert scenes from their favourite books into comic strips.
This will not only get your students reading, but it will also help them bring their favourite characters to life. A great way to add more to this game is to ask them to create their own stories based on the world of any non-fiction book.
Make book posters
Whether by hand or on a computer, asking your students to make posters of their favourite books can be a great game to play on World Book Day. You can even designate a wall to hang up their posters for the rest of the week.
Another fun idea is to get your class to work together on a large sign to put near the doorway. This will allow each kid a way to share their favourite stories on one large poster together.
Discover more book-based classroom games
There are so many different book-based games out there designed for use in schools, and you can even come up with your own. As long as you are celebrating the joy of books and offering your class an exciting lesson, then be sure to get creative on World Book Day!
Enhance your reading games with an interactive display
Offering your students a way to interact in their daily lessons can help them learn a variety of important topics. Whether that’s KS2 multiplication or learning vowels in French, interactive displays add a whole new layer to your lessons.
Promethean offers a range of fantastic interactive displays that can bring your student’s favourite book characters to life. Be sure to boost your classrooms’ next World Book Day celebrations with an interactive display!
Speak to a Promethean expert and request your free demo today.