8 reading resources for World Book Day 2021

1. World Book Day Official Resources

The obvious place to start is with the official site, which contains a trio of freely downloadable early years, primary and secondary resources packs, as well as a World Book Day Toolkit, which includes assembly plans, information for parents and promotional material galore.

Afterwards, you can then use these Big Book Off materials produced in partnership with the CLPE to keep your pupils in reading and engaging with books through a series of engaging follow-up activities.

Nursery and pre-school resources
Primary resources
Secondary resources

2. Centre for Literacy in Primary Education

Staying with CLPE, the centre has made available 20 free teaching sequences for limited time to mark two decades since the publication of its Core Book List, which lives on in the form of its Core Books Online website.

Spanning EYFS to KS2, the list reads like a roll-call of children’s literary greats, comprising resources for the likes of The Gruffalo, We’re Going On A Bear Hunt, I Want My Hat Back and the graphic novel adaptation of Stormbreaker.

You might also want to take a look CLPE’s own selection of themed World Book Day teaching ideas.

3. Classic texts KS2 reading comprehension packs

These reading challenge mats provide a quick burst of comprehension practice, ideal for morning work, a short reading session or even sparking an interest in a classic text.

Each mat contains a brief extract from a classic text with a range of reading challenge questions focusing on the key reading skills of inference, information retrieval and the use of language.

There are three packs available, each of which use three classic texts. Click each link to find them:

• Pack 1
  The Invisible Man by HG Wells, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
• Pack 2
  Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson, Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens and The Time Machine by HG Wells
• Pack 3
  Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, Dracula by Bram Stoker and The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle

4. Creativity Through Picture Books

Stories offer ample opportunity for children to get creative in a hands-on way, particularly in early years settings.

Below, Little Creative Days co-founder Tonya Meers presents an overview of creative storytelling – a process by which learners can engage with with the subject matter and and meaning of a story through making puppets, face masks, character models and ‘story box’ dioramas.

Download it here

5. Reading For Pleasure

How pupils’ interest in reading be maintained as they get older? Perhaps the answer lies in being more adventurous in terms of the books we bring to their attention.

Teacher and novelist Karl Vadasjffy has penned a guide on how to go about engaging KS3 and KS4 with books beyond the those found on school reading lists.

Books occupy bestseller lists for a reason, after all – by examining their opening chapters and their adherence (or otherwise) to genre conventions, your students may well discover how certain books will grab their attention and not let go…

Download it here

6. Roald Dahl – Teach The Stories

With Roald Dahl’s The Great Mouse Plot among this year’s selection of 10 £1 books and 2016 marking the centenary of his birth, now’s an ideal time to get reacquainted the author’s much-loved novels and stories for children.

The Roald Dahl museum has produced an impressive range of lesson plans and supporting resources to accompany 18 of Dahl’s most celebrated works , from the classics (Mathilda , The Enormous Crocodile), to his later books for older readers, such as Going Solo and The Vicar of Nibbleswicke.

7. Chatterbooks

From The Reading Agency’s Chatterbooks reading group programme comes this pack containing suggestions for activities and discussion topics linked to each of this year’s £1 books.

From getting pupils to design their own droids to tie in with Cavan Scott’ Star Wars Adventures in Wild Space: The Escape, to having them discuss what magical item they would most like to own, inspired by the magic umbrella that features in Cerrie Burnell’s Harper and the Sea of Secrets, you’re sure to find something to stoke your pupils’ interest.

Download it here

8. Book Trust

Books can inspire passionate and sometimes contradictory responses among different readers. Why note harness some of that enthusiasm and have your students put on their critical thinking in by holding a class debate?

In Teachwire’s resource archive you’ll find two resources from Book Trust – one designed to get KS3 pupils making the case for what makes a great book, and another aimed at encouraging KS2 pupils to dig deeper into notions of character by acting out their own ‘TV chat show’.

What makes a great character? (KS2)
What makes a great book? (KS3)

What are the best books? (KS1)
What makes a great book? (KS3)