Gallery: Children (and grown ups!) get into the spirit of World Book Day around Sleaford!

Youngsters made their way to Sleaford area schools in costumes inspired by their favourite characters and took part in literary related activities, and staff at Sleaford Library got in on the act too!

Staff and pupils celebrated their biggest World Book Day yet at the William Alvey School in Sleaford with many exciting book activities to promote a love of reading throughout the school community.

At the Alvey School, children came dressed as their favourite characters with some super efforts and home-made creations. The most popular characters were Willy Wonka and Harry Potter!Parents and carers were invited into school to share a book with their child and this was a great success, according to Assistant Headteacher Sian Lee.

Organising the event, English Lead teacher Lauren Irwin said: “This was an ideal opportunity to promote a love of reading and discover some of the exciting books that we have on offer. Children also shared their books with friends and staff, with the idea of creating a community of readers.”In the afternoon, classes experienced a different teacher for an hour. This created a buzz around books and children were exposed to books they may or may not know.Finally, children were encouraged to bring books they no longer want. Some Year 6 children volunteered their time to sort through the books before each child had the opportunity to take a new (pre-loved) book home.

- Everyone had great fun on World Book Day at Ruskington’s Winchelsea Primary School.

The children were greeted at the school gate at the beginning of the day by the Wicked Witch of the West on the playground before entering their classrooms where their teachers and support staff met them dressed as various characters such as Octopants, Gandalf, The Tiger Who Came to Tea and Red Riding Hood.

Headteacher Helen Duckett explained: “We then had a whole school assembly where we enjoyed talking about each other’s costumes and guessing which book was represented. Many children brought to school their favourite book too so that they could share them and introduce each other to books they may not know about to expand their knowledge.”

All of the classroom activities focused on particular books – some of them were the featured books that could be purchased this year for free with the book tokens they received at the end of the day – and some focused on class texts. Activities included designing new book covers and blurbs, making bookmarks, looking at how fantastic books have been turned into movies, learning a World Book Day rap and even talking to a real-life author on Zoom.

"We hope the children will go on to investigate more books that they have learnt about and will use their free book token to buy new books to enjoy,” said Miss Duckett.

- Classes at Kirkby La Thorpe Primary School also dressed up for the occasion.

- Sleaford Library entered into the spirit of the day with all staff on duty dressing up as characters from Alice in Wonderland including Alice, the white rabbit, the Queen of Hearts and the Mad Hatter.

Manager Charlotte Harris said they also welcomed visits for activities by Helpringham School pupils, Sleaford Day Nursery Leasingham Beavers.

She said: “Our focus has been on getting children into the library – many for the first time – introducing reading in the library and offering resources.”

Over the last month the library has also offered a very popular ‘costume swap’ with a rail and hangers loaned by Plastic Free Sleaford in an effort to promote sustainability and support parents who may struggle to find fresh outfits for World Book Day.

Charlotte said families have been in selecting and swapping costumes from a really good array on show, with more being donated.