I had hoped to get this article out before today, but was unable to because of circumstances beyond my control. Fortunately, most of the activities and links will still be relevant even after today. You can use them as a starting point for a longer term set of lessons.

Introduction

World Book Day is with us again today, March 3rd, when it is celebrating its 25th birthday! Here are some activities and resources to make it a day to remember.

Copyright

Before we go any further, it’s worth mentioning that the full name of the occasion is World Book and Copyright Day. While the National Curriculum says nothing specifically about copyright, one of the objectives in the Computing Programme of Study is to use technology safely. That ought to include copyright, because infringement of copyright, even if unintentional, can have serious consequences. For example, a lot of children – and adults –  think that all the pictures found through Google Images are free to use, so the World Book and Copyright Day could be used as a vehicle for teaching children about copyright, and providing ways they can keep themselves (and your school) safe.

Here are three great resources to help with that.

Firstly, Google Images. When you’ve searched in the usual way, click on Tools-Usage Rights-Creative Commons licences.

Secondly, the Creative Commons search engine.

Note that there are different types of Creative Commons licences, most of which ask that anyone using them gives credit to the creator of the item.

Thirdly, for information on which organisation is responsible for what sort of copyright, teachers should look at the Copyright and Schools website.

Here is one of my favourite copyright-related lesson plans:

Let’s give credit

Intended for use with pupils aged seven to eight, this free lesson plan aims to impress upon children the importance of giving credit for other people’s work, and by extension how to include credit in their schoolwork for any information they find on the internet.

The lesson progresses from looking at key definitions to appreciating why giving credit is so important. Along the way there are opportunities for class discussion, paired work and extracting information from the results of searches on the web (which are provided for you ready-made).

This is a great resource that hits a couple of objectives in the Programme of Study, such as ‘evaluating information found on the web’, and ‘using technology safely’.

The lesson comes in the form of instructions to the teacher, pupil activities, slides and a teacher’s guide (all via Google Docs). The general teacher instructions can be printed off or downloaded as a PDF.

It’s also very easy to read, with an attractive font and graphics, and an uncluttered layout. You could easily use it ‘out of the box’.

The only thing I am not too keen on is its somewhat prescriptive tone, such as: “Say: Today we talked about how we can provide credit for other people’s work we find on the internet.”

Nevertheless, there’s obviously nothing to prevent you from using your own form of words, and those kinds of ‘stage directions’ will definitely be helpful for teachers who are new to this topic.

Other lesson plans for use on WBD

Creating a new book cover

This is, in fact, a set of four lesson plans with associated resources. It’s a good way of getting pupils to think about such things as what information is conveyed through the images and text on book covers, and involves carrying out their own searches and evaluating information found on the web.

The resources provided are very good. In particular, the book cover components checklist will be an excellent handout if you intend to have the children design their own book covers.

It’s worth exploring the tabs, especially ‘Resources and Preparation’ and ‘Instructional Plan’. The latter, unlike the previous resource we looked at, is in broad outline rather than great detail.

I like this set of resources largely because of how amenable it is to a variety of approaches. It’s American, but if you want the UK age equivalent of the grades, just add five. Thus, Grade 3 is, approximately, aimed at children aged eight years old.

Disconcertingly, a couple of the links on the front page don’t work. However, if you search on the site for, say, ‘book cover creator’, it will hand you the page on a platter!

Choose your favourite writer

This lesson plan from BrainPop involves the children exploring the life and works of their favourite authors. This is more of a longer term project than just something to do on World Book Day, not least because it involves actually reading the books!

The plan comes in the form of a broad set of instructions in ‘teacher speak’, which you are invited to adapt as necessary to the age of the children you are teaching.

As well as reading about an author, and one or two of their books, the lesson also suggests getting the children to write a story that has been inspired by one of the books. This neatly introduces the idea of fan fiction, albeit without saying as much. That, in turn, could provide the basis for a discussion about copyright.

It's also a great way to prepare kids for a talk by a visiting (or virtually visiting author), as suggested below.

Reading and writing

Now, what about the book side of things? The internet is awash with fabulous ideas – so much so, in fact, that it’s hard to know where to look first!

A great place to start is the Teachwire website, where you will find some wonderful suggestions. Go to 18 World Book Day ideas for primary teachers, at Some of the ideas there, which have been sent in by teachers, include:

·      A six-word story competition, inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s supposed masterpiece, “For sale: baby shoes, never worn”. (If you’re stumped for ideas, have a browse through Six Word Stories.)

·      Blind date with a book, in which pupils have to select a wrapped-up book based only on its description. This is a good way of encouraging pupils to read something other than their usual fare.

·      Skype an author. Children love meeting their favourite author, and even in these Covid times that is still possible via Skype or Zoom. The Society of Authors has a very useful guide about how to organise an author visit (pdf). Unfortunately, and ironically, the link to the Society’s own author database is unavailable at the moment because of technical difficulties. However, you can use the advanced search facility to help you find someone suitable.

·      Extreme reading competition: encourage parents to take photos of their kids reading in unusual places or positions. It sounds daft, but that, surely, is part of the appeal.

If taking photos appeals, last year UNESCO ran a #bookface challenge, in which children had to be photographed with a book cover. Look here for inspiration: Bookface.   

More ideas to try and places to visit

Other ideas can be found at https://bit.ly/tfTPwbd, where you’ll find links to downloadable resource packs for Key Stages 1 and 2 English. (For example, have children imagine what would happen if a character from one book wandered into a different one!) And be sure to check out Adam Parkhouse’s prompts at https://bit.ly/tfTPwbd12.

An essential place to visit is the World Book Day website, at https://bit.ly/tfTPwbdHome.  There you will find out how to get hold of £1 tokens that can be used to buy free books, or to obtain a £1 discount on full-priced books.

There’s also a programme of digital events, including a BBC live lesson and accompanying resources. See https://bit.ly/tfTPwbdEvents. There’s even a YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/WorldBookDayUK.

Another good source of ideas is the Club Hub website at https://bit.ly/tfTPclub. For instance, one of the ideas is to create a Scavenger Hunt in which children can read the clues to find different types of books.

As you can see, you can mark World Book Day in many different and exciting ways.

There is a shorter version of this article on the Teachwire website.