World Book Day is a fantastic opportunity for EYFS settings to foster a love of reading and storytelling in young children. Below are some creative and educational World Book Day activities for EYFS that encourage literacy, creativity, and social skills, while aligning with the EYFS framework.
Blossom's Recommended World Book Day Activities for Early Years:
1. Dress Up as Favourite Characters
Encourage children to come to nursery dressed as their favourite characters from books. This sparks excitement around reading and allows for role play and character exploration.
Teachers can use this as an opportunity to discuss the characters and the stories they come from, helping to build listening, speaking, and comprehension skills.
Just try and encourage them not to all come as Bluey and Duggee!
EYFS Areas of Learning and Development:
- Communication and Language (Listening, Attention and Understanding)
- Personal, Social, and Emotional Development (Managing Self)
- Literacy (Comprehension)
2. Story Time and Book Discussions
Choose a range of books that the children enjoy and have a special storytime session. Ask them for their favourite – or simply chosen that day – book, and settle in for a good reading session. If there’s lots of children and you won’t be able to go through all their books, choose your favourite instead.
After each story, ask the children questions about what they liked and encourage them to retell the story in their own words. This activity helps with listening comprehension, vocabulary building, and story sequencing.
Top Tip: Use your nursery management software’s newsletter system to build parent partnerships with these two activities. Send out a newsletter to your parents asking them to get their children involved in dress up and bringing in a book.
Don’t have newsletters? Book a demo with a system that does!
EYFS Areas of Learning and Development:
- Literacy (Word Reading, Comprehension)
- Communication and Language (Speaking)
- Personal, Social, and Emotional Development (Building Relationships)
3. Book-Themed Arts and Crafts
Choose a popular book (e.g., The Gruffalo or Elmer the Patchwork Elephant) and organise an arts and crafts session where children create artwork based on the book.
They can make paper plate masks, draw scenes from the story, or create their own characters that are similarly monstrous/patchwork etc. They can also make themed bookmarks, but if all this crafting is a bit much for your smallest ones use cutouts to stick to a pre-made rectangle.
Theme the cards to the story – green for the Very Hungry Caterpillar, pink for Elmer, orange for The Tiger Who Came To Tea etc. This activity promotes creativity and fine motor skills all while linking back to the chosen story.
EYFS Areas of Learning and Development:
- Expressive Arts and Design (Creating with Materials)
- Literacy (Comprehension)
- Communication and Language (Speaking)
4. Story Bag Exploration
Prepare a “story bag” filled with items related to a specific book. For example, if using The Very Hungry Caterpillar, include toy food items, a caterpillar toy, and a butterfly.
Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell is a great one for this, as children can hold onto animals from the story that they’ve picked out, then they can be asked ‘who has the giraffe?’, ‘who has the frog?’ etc. after it’s been revealed from the flap.
This teaches children to wait their turn, call their peers by name, and encourages listening and attention while taking notice of the world around them.
EYFS Areas of Learning and Development:
- Literacy (Comprehension)
- Communication and Language (Speaking)
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development (Building Relationships, Self Regulation)
5. Create Your Own Storybook
Provide children with blank paper and craft materials to create their own (picture) storybooks. They can illustrate their stories, add stickers, or cut and paste images to create their own paper-thin plots.
Even making general marks to represent words, whether they’re squiggles or a letter or two, is a great way to encourage early literacy.
This helps with fine motor skills, creativity, and storytelling abilities, allowing children to express themselves through their own story creations. Just a few more years and they might be writing them!
EYFS Areas of Learning and Development:
- Literacy (Comprehension)
- Expressive Arts and Design (Creating with Materials)
- Communication and Language (Speaking)
- Physical Development (Fine Motor Skills)
6. World Book Day Parade
Organise a mini World Book Day parade in the classroom or outdoor space where children can show off their costumes and talk about their favourite characters. This builds confidence, encourages social interaction, and helps develop language skills as children share their ideas and listen to their peers.
EYFS Areas of Learning and Development:
- Personal, Social, and Emotional Development (Managing Self)
- Communication and Language (Listening, Attention and Understanding, Speaking)
Incorporating World Book Day activities for EYFS into your curriculum is an exciting way to celebrate literature while developing children’s literacy, social, and creative skills. From dressing up as characters to creating their own storybooks, these activities not only engage children in fun learning experiences but also foster a lifelong love for reading.
For more brilliant EYFS activities, check out our Ultimate guide to EYFS activities blog post and easily cover the seven areas of learning and development!
