World Book Day at Footsteps 2020
On Thursday 5th March, children and teachers across the United Kingdom celebrated the magic of literature as they donned costumes and undertook themed activities to mark World Book Day. The annual global event celebrates reading and is marked in more than 100 countries all over the world.
With reading topping the list of some of their favourite activities, children dressed as their favourite literary character. Characters from fictional favourites including Elmer the Elephant, Little Red Riding hood, The Hungry Caterpillar and Room on The Broom could be found amongst many others as Footsteps Nursery and Pre-school marked the annual tradition at its sites in Chalfont, Aylesbury, Farnborough and Maple Cross. It wasn’t just the children who enjoyed the dressing up, staff got in on the act too and were not afraid to let their literary imaginations run wild!
Of course World Book Day is not just about dressing up, and the children were treated to a full week of literary themed adventures and activities.
At Aylesbury, the staff organised a book swop between the children and they even left a treasure trail of books around the local area for others in the community to find and enjoy. They also took the bus to the local bookstore to buy books for the bursary with their World Book Day tokens and also paid a visit to their local library to share stories and take out books to share with other children back at the nursery. In their craft sessions they made mini Elmer the Elephants, stick men, animal stories and danced to their favourite nursery rhymes.
Maple Cross children and staff joined in the fun with a nod to the tiger who came to tea with a very special tea party. They also enjoyed making tiger handprints and bookmarks, practised some threading on giant foods from the Hungry Caterpillar, made Elmer masks and even illustrated their own stories.
Over at Farnborough and Chalfont there were some incredible costumes on display and the children (and their parents) amazed staff with their creativity. It was incredible to see such an array of characters from such a wide range of books. The children clearly love to read and were thrilled to become part of their favourite stories for the day as well as take part in the fantastic range of crafts, sensory play and outdoor play.
Even lunch was not exempt from the book themed fun and an imaginary trip to a deep dark wood was enjoyed with a Gruffalo themed menu. After all the excitement, story time was a great way to end the day, with the children enjoying relaxing and winding down with staff as they were swept away into another world, only possible through the amazing power of books.
Area Manager Kelly Carter said “Enjoying books with the children is an essential part of every day at Footsteps. Exposing them to language, how it works and the fantastic stories to be found in books is a privilege. We really enjoyed celebrating and had great fun with all the different activities and crafts. A huge thanks to all the parents for the fantastic effort they put into the amazing outfits and to all the staff who go above and beyond to make the day a success.”
