LITERACY ACTIVITIES
Involve students in a variety of activities to share the joy of reading, to value and validate it as a pleasurable leisure time activity and encourage them to explore the adventures they can have, the opportunities that open up and the conversations they can share through stories.
Thanks to all the teacher librarians who have generously shared their ideas.
Read in your favourite place and share a photo.
Re-read a book that you enjoyed when you were younger.
Read to your family, your pet, your teddy or your toys.
Create a reading or book inspired chalk drawing on the driveway
Chalk Boy by Margaret Wild
Read a magazine, a newspaper, an ebook, an online article, a poem or a ballad
Connect to family and friends via video and share a story together.
Organise your bookshelf according to your favourites. Re-read something you haven't read for a while. Decide those you will keep for your children
Create a rebus for a book title to share as a class quiz.
Choose a favourite book and have a look at the front and back cover. Read the first 10 pages. Create a new front and back cover for the book. Think about all the things that go on the cover of a book e.g. title, author, illustrator, blurb, publishers name, reviews, other stories by the same author and barcode. Make sure your new cover includes these.
Choose a favourite story. Create a one-pager about your chosen book. Include information about the storyline, the characters, the author, and illustrator. Write what you would like to see happen next to the characters. Illustrate your information.
Why would you recommend this book to a friend?
Choose a favourite page from a picture book that has clear illustrations. Draw your version of the page. Once you have done your drawing tell the story from the book in just 10 sentences. Write the story on the page from the picture book. Think about where you will place the writing. Do you just write at the bottom of the page, or can you do something a little more creative?
Choose a favourite book and create a poster advertising the book What do you put on the poster? Think about what words and images you need to use to get someone to buy and read this book. Think about the type of language you need to use to get someone to buy the book. Think about how you set the poster out – mixing pictures and text
Choose a favourite book and create a comic strip for part of the story. How much of the story are you going to tell? How many frames will you use to tell the story (use at least 15)? Will your comic use colour or black and white? How much will you write and how much will you show (use pictures).
Choose a favourite picture book and create a find-a-word from words in the text. Choose 25 words from the text. Draw a 15 by 15 grid. Put all the words in the grid, then fill any spaces left with random letters. Let someone else in your house see if they can find all the words.
Take this Book Week Quiz from Peter Macinnis.
Share this year's CBCA theme for Book Week. . Have students make a diagram or diorama of the display they would create for the school to celebrate this theme. Ensure it includes a backdrop, accessories and a list of at least six books that could be included to match the world.
Choose your favourite character and create them using a toilet roll.
Create a map of
the setting of your favourite book
the world you would set your story in if you wrote one
Include key elements like a compass and key and so forth.
Examine travel posters and then create one for an Old World that interests you such as Ancient Greece or Medieval Times. Include pictures and other critical information.
Or share a New or Other world you would like to visit, Explain your interest and what you would need to take with you.
Turn your favourite story into a tasty treat.
Create a diorama to share your favourite book. Explore these tech tools to make it more exciting and accessible.
This site identifies the Top 20 reads in each country. Unfortunately it doesn't include Australia as a separate entity. So survey your family and friends to create a list of the Top 20 children's books that are worth sharing with your children. Share your list with your class to create a common list. Investigate which ones were also Book of the Year winners.
Use these examples to create your own abridged story. It doesn't have to be a classic but you do have to focus on the core elements.
Plot a character's journey through a picture book using emojis to show their feelings. Play with apps and filters and so forth or just draw them.
Celebrate this year's theme by creating a poster or advertisement for a book that exemplifies that theme.
Create your own story to celebrate this year’s theme . It can be in any format you like – prose, poetry, song, graphic novel, comic… Share it with your classmates.
Select a character from a favourite story and build a biography for them using the information from the story and your imagination. Create a drawing as a physical description, build a family tree, a social media profile, likes, dislikes, education, friendship networks and so on.
Which character would you like to invite for dinner or spend time sitting beside on a park bench? What would you ask them? What would they answer? Write your conversation.
Identify these book characters from their silhouettes. Have students create their own.
Use the emojis to identify the book titles. Challenge students to create their own to challenge their peers!
Teach the children how to play charades . Organise a video session for them to share their interpretation of a book title. or just have some family fun.
Using well-known stories, have each student devise two statements of fact and one of fiction about the character or plot of the story. Students have to draw on their knowledge of the book to determine the veracity of each statement.
Create a Book Bento. Use the idea of a bento being a complete meal for one, packed in separate portions and re-create a story using individual essential elements of it.
Have students make a book treasure bottle. Colour rice using 1 cup of rice, 1 tsp alcohol, and 6 drops of food coloring.. Put it all inside a small zippered bag and kneaded until the rice is well coated. Spread on a baking sheet to dry. Put into a screw=top jar and add small items that are the essential elements of a well-known story. Other students identify the elements to identify the mystery story.
Carefully position the cover of a book in front of your face and take a photo to make a Bookface.
Imagine you are the marketing manager for a bookshop with a special book to sell to the public. Create a display based on the book that will bring them into the store to buy it. Photograph your display for an advertising campaign.
Choose a book from the shortlist for the Eve Pownall Awards and ask the students what the author would have needed to know before writing it. List their questions as models for future investigations.
If there is a book that demonstrates the need to cross-examine the resources used in research, have students collaborate to develop their own model for analysing, interpreting and evaluating information. S.M.A.R.T. could be demonstrated as an example.
Have students use a real-life situation or one from a book they have enjoyed and, putting themselves in the place of the two key characters, tell the story from that perspective. Then have them retell it from an observer's perspective. What changes in each retelling?
Choose a book in graphic novel format, or a picture book for older readers such as those by Armin Greder and write a review that demonstrates how this format engages the reader more effectively than the more traditional novel/
Have students match photos of teachers to photos of their home bookshelves. Ensure teachers insert subtle clues to help them make the matches.
Have students match photos of teachers to photos of their favourite book they read as a child.
Which story will they share with their own children in years to come? Why?
Have teachers share their favourite place in the world through a photo of a book that features that country or city. Students have to identify the place and match it to the teacher who chose it.
Have teachers take a selfie reading their favourite book with the cover visible but their face not. Students identify who is behind the book.
Have teachers dress up, disguising their face, to read a book via video. (Make sure it is copyright compliant - see above.) Students identify the teacher.
Have teachers use the spines or covers of books to create a message that will inspire their students to hang in there.
Have students select a character from one of the shortlisted titles and create a social media profile for it. Other students have to identify the mystery character.
Enjoy a book tasting by following Chathurika Ginige's instructions here,
Offer students a variety of landscape scenes. Have them put characters in the picture, including themselves if desired, and then build a story to write.
Have students interpret the theme or a scene from a favourite book using Lego.
Give students a blank template and have them create a bookmark to match the theme or a shortlisted title using their choice of media.
Select an age-appropriate movie that has been adapted from a well-known book and have a lunchtime screening. Talk about the similarities and differences and the reasons for these. Hold a poll to discover the most popular medium.
Create a stpry walk for either a shortlisted book or one that celebrates the theme. Use the information from StoryWalk to guide you.
Raffaela has created a book about books to share and explore.. If you go to my review blog The Bottom Shelf and do a category search for "books. libraries and reading", you will find more than 80, each of which celebrates the magic io words and reading.
Create themed bookends from LEGO.
From Beyond the Brick Jan 19 2025
Challenge students to make a story/sentence from book titles.
Paint your sneakers with iconic images from your favourite story.