We’d love to share a glimpse of how we celebrate events like World Book Day. While events themselves are not the focus of our curriculum, our children’s interests are — and our children absolutely love stories.
Today our Preschool children celebrated World Book Day through a range of invitations to explore inspired by their favourite stories. Across the room, children brought books to life through sensory play, role play, creativity and curiosity.
Water Area
Inspired by The Tiger Who Came to Tea, children poured, filled, mixed and stirred using teapots, cups and natural materials to create their own “tea”. A playful invitation supporting curiosity, sensory exploration and physical development.
Small World Area
Inspired by The Smartest Giant in Town, children recreated the story using figures and loose parts. This encouraged imagination, language and collaborative role play as the story unfolded in their own little world.
Creative Area
Inspired by The Snail and the Whale, children experimented with different painting textures, mixed colours to discover new shades and used loose parts to recreate the story world in their own imaginative ways.
Math Area
Inspired by The Colour Monster, children matched colours using jars and loose parts while exploring and talking about emotions.
Sensory Tuff Tray
Inspired by The Very Hungry Caterpillar, children poured sensory rice through funnels, counted fruits and retold the story through play, exploring transformation, texture and imagination.
Math Area
Inspired by The Colour Monster, children matched colours using jars and loose parts while exploring and talking about emotions.
To celebrate World Book Day with our youngest children we brought one of the children’s favourite stories to life:
Stick Man, using props the children excitedly spotted Stick Man and joined in as we read the story together while exploring props linked to different parts of the book. We introduced Stick Man’s family using real sticks, with children pointing out features like eyes and arms, alongside a “family tree” filled with real green leaves.
We met a dog — a clear favourite — that walked and barked, explored the river using a water spray (building anticipation as children asked for “more!”), and touched the soft feathers of a swan. At the beach, children made marks in sand using shells.
Before we knew it Stickman was almost placed into the flickering fire, giving us the opportunity to talk about how fire is “hot” and not safe to touch. Children took turns pressing a sound button to hear Stick Man say “Ho ho ho, I’m stuck, get me out!”, which sparked lots of curiosity. Finally, we discovered it was Santa who was stuck, tried on his hat, pretended to fly through the air and returned Stick Man safely to the family tree.
The session was full of excitement as the children recognised and responded to the rhythm and repetition of the story. Experiencing it through all of their senses supported both their learning and their enjoyment.
