NBD 07 materials
Friday 5 October is National Bookstart Day 2007 and the theme is Jungle Party!
Axel Scheffler, the illustrator of Monkey Puzzle and The Gruffalo, has also generously donated a unique and wonderful image to mark the occasion.
We hope that you will join us in celebrating the day by running your own Bookstart Rhymetime event. Special National Bookstart Day materials are now available through your local Bookstart scheme coordinator will include posters, bookmarks, stickers, Bookstart bears and jungle-themed songsheets.
Further online resources
There are now a host of further resources available here to download, along with suggested activities to make this year's National Bookstart Day a wonderful celebration.
National Bookstart Day rhymesheets and posters
| We've created special Rhymetime sheets in English and Welsh, using Axel's original illustration. You can download these and see the suggested tunes to accompany the rhymes. | ||||
| Our wonderful poster, designed by Axel Scheffler, is also available: | |||||
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Games, songs and activities
There are lots of fun activities, including face masks and colouring-in sheets to download and other great ideas to mark the day. Scroll down and take a look...
 | Monkey face mask As with the popular Teddy Bear mask last year we have a special jungle character mask available to download. | |||||
 | Jungle colouring-in sheet Bring the animals to life with a splash of colour. |  | | Colour sand parrots For children to decorate with glue, coloured sand and feathers. | ||
Suggested books
 | Here's a list of suggested books to accompany your National Bookstart Day rhymetime or storytime event. Let us know your suggestions for more books and rhymes on the Discussion Board. |
Here are some other suggestions for your themed Rhymetime or related event below:
- Face-painting techniques (tips to follow shortly...)
- Paper plate snakes
Have children paint both sides of a paper plate green. When they are dry start cutting the plate in a spiral until you get about 5 inches from the end and make its head a little bigger than the rest of its long body. Use a wiggle eye and red curly ribbon for its tongue. Alternatively, the snakes could be made in advance and children could spend some time colouring them in or decorating them with stickers.
- Jungle animals
Encourage the children to bring their own cuddly jungle animals to the library.
- Safari binoculars
Make binoculars from kitchen roll tubes, painted brown and attached with a piece of string.
- Safari Maps of the Library
Hide ‘treasure’ of chocolate coins and a jungle-themed book in a Bookstart Treasure Chest hidden in the library. Draw jungle treasure maps on tea-stained paper and encourage the children to hunt for the treasure. When the treasure is found, hand out the chocolate coins to each child, and read the story from the chest.
We hope that you will continue to lend your invaluable support to our shared aim of encouraging every child to develop a lifelong love of books and reading.
Please join us in celebrating National Bookstart Day on Friday 5 October 2007.