Celebration activities like dressing up are a special part of World Book Day. World Book Day can be celebrated in or out of costume, the important thing is that the day is fun and that children are feel included and are encouraged to read for pleasure.
Dressing up is an effective way to encourage children (particularly reluctant readers) to engage with reading. It can help children to express their personal reading choices and share reading recommendations. Children being dressed up also changes the learning environment to one which is more playful.
Top tips:
If dressing up doesn’t work for you, try one of these alternatives:
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If you or your child’s school is choosing to dress up, the most important thing is that it reflects your child’s choice of reading.
Dressing Up – Ideas for ParentsWorld Book Day and Oxford Children's have worked with the 2024 £1/€1.50 publishers on dressing up templates and ideas to create low-cost costumes related to the 2024 £1/€1.50 books.
The materials for our workshop cost less than £30.
You can adapt the templates to make book or character costumes.
The pack includes a workshop outline to run this as a whole class activity.
