World Book Day is on Thursday 5th March this year and is a great opportunity to celebrate books and reading in your school. The website has downloadable resources and toolkits for teachers from Nursery to Secondary, assembly ideas and activity sheets. There are also a wealth of creative ideas that teachers have used successfully to inspire their students which you can access here including :

Book blind dates – wrap books up in brown paper and write a dating advert which describes the book.

Extreme Reading competitions – get parents to take photographs of their child reading in extreme or unusual places.

Drop Everything and Read (DEAR) – When the special rings at random times throughout the day, everyone (including teachers) must drop what they’re doing and start reading.

The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) has also produced a range of book related activities for primary and secondary schools which you can access here.

Or you could sit down with your students and watch the The Biggest Book Show on Earth 2015 which is an online series of short videos featuring workshops with this year’s World Book Day authors. The 2015 authors include Johnny Duddle (The Pirate Cruncher), Holly Smale (Geek Girl), Chris Riddell (Goth Girl), and Rachel Renne Russell (Dork Diaries).

Alternatively, you could play a game from the World Book Day site such as the Harry Potter Name Generator or challenge your class with one of the children’s books quizzes on the Booktrust website or the Guardian Children’s Books site.

The object of the day is to highlight the pleasure of books and reading, so whatever you do, have fun!