Explore what would happen if a book character entered a different story where they didn’t belong with these World Book Day ideas for KS1 and KS2.
World Book Day ideas
What if a library got its books in a muddle and the pages from different books got spliced with each other? Where would the characters end up? What would they do? How would they act?
The comic book industry has relied on amalgamations and multiverses for decades to keep stories fresh. Time travel, cloning and wormholes have allowed characters to be reborn, inhabit new bodies and end up in different settings across time.
These World Book Day activities let your class explore this concept and create a multiverse of their own with their favourite characters.
Starter activity
Ask your class which book character they would choose to save the school from imminent doom. Steer conversations away from established superheroes if possible. You may find it helpful to display a range of characters on the board to prompt debate and discussion.
Which character from a book they’ve read would pupils most like to see in a different series? This is an excellent opportunity to refer to your current class novel.
Lead children toward the idea that book characters have different strengths and weaknesses. How would Alex Rider cope if he had to face the Trunchbull, for instance? What would happen if an assembly of literature’s worst villains ended up on the same page?
Curriculum links
- Understand that character swaps are a regular feature in certain types of storytelling
- Understand the actions and feelings of characters
- Know that many characters in stories share traits, irrespective of their worlds, powers or backgrounds
- What makes a character stand out from the crowd
This download contains
- Full PDF lesson plan
Adam Parkhouse was a silver winner at the Pearson Teaching Awards and is a senior teacher at Cantley Primary in Norfolk.
