7 Whizzing, Wonderful, World Book Day Ideas !

Elmer, Winnie the Witch and The Twits, to name but a few are going to take over this Thursday, the 4th of March 2021. 

You guessed it, World Book Day is around the corner! I'm going to share with you some crafts  I've made which you can easily do at home with your children. 

These crafts are aimed for children aged 4-7, and can be adapted for older children simply by changing the book you base the craft on. You can also adjust the level of support or preparation you offer, and alter the complexity of the end product to meet the child's ability. Scroll down to see the ideas. 

1. Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell. 

Idea: Design a Zoo using a box, pictures of animals, and different materials to make elements like grass, water, straw, stones, fences or tyres. 

Learning opportunities: 

This will help with children's imagination, creativity, their fine motor skills when they're ripping and cutting paper, learning animal names, and also allows them to identify the different habitats animals live in. 

2. Aliens love Underpants by Claire Freedman and Ben Cort.

Idea: Make a spaceship using a paper plate, pictures of aliens, and other decorative crafts. 

Learning opportunities: 

Again, this helps with children's imagination, role play, understanding that there are 'planets' beyond our 'World', and fine motor skills when cutting and sticking. Creativity is a strong element here. Finally..fun!! At being able to say "PANTS" and roar with laughter! 

3. Jack and the Beanstalk by various authors. 

Idea: Jack climbing up a beanstalk arriving at the Giant's castle. The leaves can be numbered, have words, number sentences, or phonics written on them. 

Learning opportunities:

Speaking and Listening, imagination, storytelling, counting, reading, phonics, an understanding of how plants grow, and fine motor skills. 

4. Elmer by David McKee.

Idea: Make Elmer ears using paper plates or card stuck onto a headband. My Elmer print is squares of coloured paper stuck onto the plates. Or you can colour the plates in to create the chequered print. 

Learning opportunities:

Learning colours and shapes, self-awareness as to what makes them unique, what our five senses are, role-play, and what sounds they can hEAR with their special Elmer ears!

5. Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. 

Idea: Making your own fruit kebab. You can use a variety of fruit from blueberries, grapes, kiwi, melon, oranges, mango, pineapple, watermelon, apples, and strawberries to give the children a wide selection. You do not need to go out and buy lots of fruit. Just a variety of four different fruits is enough. 

Learning opportunities: 

Naming fruit, describing fruit and their tastes, an understanding of how living things grow, sorting healthy and unhealthy food, counting the different amounts of fruit the caterpillar ate, and fine motor skills. Why not challenge the children to order the fruit according to the rainbow colours?

6. Whatever Next! by Jill Murphy. 

Idea: Picnic on the Moon with Bear and Owl.

Learning opportunities: 

Role-play, using our imagination, creativity, social skills when eating, speaking and listening, making friends, naming food. 

7. The Gingerbread Man by various authors. 

Idea: Bake and decorate your own Man-shaped biscuit. I decided to go for a shortbread recipe and added some ground ginger into the dough. You can use different ingredients like icing, smarties, sprinkles, raisins and chocolate chips to decorate the Man. 

Learning Opportunities: 

Understanding the changes that occur when food is cooked, reading scales, fine motor skills when rolling or handling food, naming ingredients, naming equipment, health and safety, sequencing in a recipe, awareness of healthy and unhealthy food and using our imagination.

(I guarantee you the children will believe that the biscuits are capable of escaping from the oven if you don't eat them quick enough!) 

The above ideas are just that. Ideas. Please don't put pressure on yourself to buy fancy crafts. Improvise where you can. The main thing is that the children (and yourself) have fun exploring their favourite books through these crafts :) 

What will you be dressing up as this year? I'll be going as Red Riding Hood, wearing a blue gingham dress, a red fur cape and long brown boots. 

Now...where's my basket? 

Till next time, keep reading and keep smiling :) 

Shai :) 

Images of books: worldofbooks.com