Making the most of Booktime

5 ways to make the most of Booktime in your school

1. Make giving out the packs memorable

The way schools give out the book packs to their reception class has a big effect on how positive children the children feel about taking their own books home to keep.

Get some great ideas from reading about how Monteney Primary School in Sheffield gave out their packs. You can introduce the story book first with a reading in class, so the children recognise the story and are excited about taking home a copy of their own.

2. Plan a session in class around Booktime

We’ve provided lots of session ideas to help you plan classroom activities around Booktime. You’ll find ideas themed around music and movement, crafts and marking making, roleplay, feelings, and learning about the world.

Use the Booktime resource finder to help you pick out the ideal themes to fit your planning.

3. Get parents and carers involved

Booktime book packs are a perfect opportunity to build really strong relationships between school and home.

Some schools like to send a letter home to parents introducing their child’s Booktime book pack and encouraging them to enjoy sharing the stories at home. We've prepared a template letter here, which you can download and adapt to send to parents.

Several session ideas based on this year’s titles give some ideas for getting parents involved in Booktime classroom activities. Try ‘Jambo! Saying hello around the world’ for an activity based on different languages at home, or ‘What are we good at?’ to make a wall display or class book that parents can add to.

4. Send an activity sheet home for families

Some teachers say that giving children an activity sheet to take home shortly after they receive their book packs can remind parents to share the story again with their child.

There are more than a dozen activity sheets based on this year’s two books, which you can explore by theme using our resource finder. 
 
You might like to send home a mark making or colouring sheet, like ‘Face painting’ or ‘Elephant’s ears’,  or a sheet to fill in like ‘Getting to know you’.

5. Help families choose their next book

Teachers say that parents are more likely to ask them questions about books and reading once children have received their book packs.

You can find lots of suggestions of books for reception children and their families in our books pages. You can find more titles by the Booktime authors, as well as books about friends, feelings and lots of other themes.