World Book Day 2021
‘There is more treasure in books than in all the pirates loot on Treasure Island’ – Walt Disney
It’s that time of year again and the children loved dressing up as their favourite book characters for World Book Day. World Book Day is charity on a mission to help change children’s lives by making reading together and reading for pleasure a habit for life. The charity says; ‘Reading for pleasure is the single biggest indicator for success in life, more than family circumstances, educational background, or income (Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development)’. They say sharing stories together for just ten minutes a day will encourage a love of reading and it’s fun for everyone! Just remember you can read together anywhere and everywhere from breakfast to bedtime! Whether its at home on the sofa, in the park, the garden, the bus or when the time comes again on a plane – reading and story telling can happen anywhere at any time.
We were so impressed here at First Steps with all of the children’s costumes and some impressive staff costumes too. From Mary Poppins to Harry Potter the staff team embraced world book day and helped the children to have a day to remember, filled with storytelling, imaginative skills and creating world book day themed crafts! We also had some fabulous costumes from the children including the winners of best dressed; ‘the very hungry caterpillar, the highway rat, Dorothy and what the ladybird heard on holiday’. A massive well done to all of the children and staff for their excellent costumes. It was great to see all of the children’s happy faces as they spoke about the different costumes and books that they knew.
As well as dressing up the children took part in lots of activities including making book marks, story boards and themed cutting and sticking. Early reading ignites creativity, sparks curiosity, and stimulates the imagination in young children. Often, this leads to role-play as children grow which helps to develop other skills such as empathy, problem-solving, and morality. The older children in our preschool rooms used these imaginative skills to act out some of their favourite traditional stories such as the three little pigs and the billy goats gruff. This helps to encourage the children’s story sequencing skills as they remember the beginning, middle and end of the story and begin to ask questions and suggest what happens next.
Reading, along with writing, makes up literacy, one of the four specific areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). In setting we have lots of areas, including our cosy book corners, and resources including story sacks which support this area of the EYFS. We wanted to help encourage this at home too so this month we set a home learning challenge via our social media pages and email asking our families to send in pictures of the children reading with someone special at home. We had lots of entries and all of the entries received their own book to take home and the winner received a bundle of books and an Easter treat. Thank you to everyone who took part, reading at home is so important and helps World Book Day’s mission of making reading for pleasure a habit for life.
You can read more about the important work and mission that World Book Day are on by visiting their website now. They also have lots of activities you can do with your children to continue encouraging a love for books and reading!
