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Character Kit - Book Week
F 1 2 3 4 5 6 Standard Membership Games & Activities Calendar Events Book Week English Interacting with Others Creating Texts 6 Pages

Character Kit - Book Week

Make Book Week meaningful with The Book Week Character Kit, a simple, low-preparation resource that transforms a costume parade into an authentic book response activity. Rather than focusing on elaborate costumes, this resource encourages students to demonstrate their understanding of a favourite book by identifying a character, naming the book and author and sharing a memorable line in character.

The kit includes printable character sashes, badges and crowns that can be decorated to suit any book character, allowing students to create an effective costume using paper, colouring materials and imagination. A planning page helps students prepare what they will say, while teacher guidance explains how to use the activity as both a Book Week celebration and a purposeful speaking and listening task.

Students develop confidence in oral language as they introduce their character and perform a line from the story using expression, pitch, pace and volume. The resource also includes parade planning sheets to help teachers organise and record each student's character and spoken line, making the event easy to coordinate.

Designed for the 2026 Book Week theme Symphony of Stories, this versatile resource celebrates reading, encourages thoughtful book responses and creates an inclusive Book Week experience where every child can participate, regardless of their costume budget.

Learning goals

  • We are learning to create and deliver short oral presentations to peers.
  • We are learning to create and deliver short oral and multimodal presentations to peers, which include an opening, middle and concluding statement, appropriate vocabulary, gestures, volume and pace.
  • We are learning to structure, rehearse and present short oral presentations on new and familiar topics.
  • We are learning to re-read and edit texts for appropriate meaning, structure, grammatical choices and punctuation.
  • We are learning to plan, rehearse and deliver presentations in an organised manner with relevant facts and description from reliable sources.
  • We are learning to plan, rehearse and deliver multimodal presentations for specific audiences and purposes sequenced logically in an organised manner with appropriate features of voice and relevant facts from reliable sources.
  • We are learning to deliver short oral presentations to peers.
  • We are learning to structure and make short presentations on familiar topics.
  • We are learning to plan and deliver oral or multimodal short presentations, providing some key details in logical sequence.
  • We are learning to plan, rehearse and deliver presentations for specific audiences and purposes in an organised manner with multimodal elements and relevant facts from reliable sources.

Curriculum alignment

AC9E1LY07 9 Create and deliver short oral and/or multimodal presentations on personal and learnt topics, which include an opening, middle and concluding statement; some topic-specific vocabulary and appropriate gesture, volume and pace AC9EFLY07 9 Create and deliver short spoken texts to report ideas and events to peers, using features of voice such as appropriate volume AC9E2LY07 9 Create, rehearse and deliver short oral and/or multimodal presentations for familiar audiences and purposes, using text structure appropriate to purpose and topic-specific vocabulary, and varying tone, volume and pace AC9E3LY07 9 Plan, create, rehearse and deliver short oral and/or multimodal presentations to inform, express opinions or tell stories, using a clear structure, details to elaborate ideas, topic-specific and precise vocabulary, visual features, and appropriate tone, pace, pitch and volume AC9E4LY07 9 Plan, create, rehearse and deliver structured oral and/or multimodal presentations to report on a topic, tell a story, recount events or present an argument using subjective and objective language, complex sentences, visual features, tone, pace, pitch and volume AC9E5LY07 9 Plan, create, rehearse and deliver spoken and multimodal presentations that include relevant, elaborated ideas, sequencing ideas and using complex sentences, specialist and technical vocabulary, pitch, tone, pace, volume, and visual and digital features ACELY1677 8.4 Plan and deliver short presentations, providing some key details in logical sequence ACELY1647 8.4 Deliver short oral presentations to peers ACELY1657 8.4 Make short presentations using some introduced text structures and language, for example opening statements ACELY1700 8.4 Plan, rehearse and deliver presentations for defined audiences and purposes incorporating accurate and sequenced content and multimodal elements ACELY1689 8.4 Plan, rehearse and deliver presentations incorporating learned content and taking into account the particular purposes and audiences ACELY1667 8.4 Rehearse and deliver short presentations on familiar and new topics
ENe-1A old Communicates with peers and known adults in informal and guided activities demonstrating emerging skills of group interaction EN2-6B old Identifies the effect of purpose and audience on spoken texts, distinguishes between different forms of English and identifies organisational patterns and features EN3-1A old Communicates effectively for a variety of audiences and purposes using increasingly challenging topics, ideas, issues and language forms and features EN1-6B old Recognises a range of purposes and audiences for spoken language and recognises organisational patterns and features of predictable spoken texts EN1-REFLU-01 new Sustains reading unseen texts with automaticity and prosody and self-corrects errors EN2-CWT-02 new Plans, creates and revises written texts for informative purposes, using text features, sentence-level grammar, punctuation and word-level language for a target audience EN2-CWT-01 new Plans, creates and revises written texts for imaginative purposes, using text features, sentence-level grammar, punctuation and word-level language for a target audience EN2-VOCAB-01 new Builds knowledge and use of Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary through interacting, wide reading and writing, and by defining and analysing words EN2-OLC-01 new Communicates with familiar audiences for social and learning purposes, by interacting, understanding and presenting EN2-CWT-03 new Plans, creates and revises written texts for persuasive purposes, using text features, sentence-level grammar, punctuation and word-level language for a target audience EN2-SPELL-01 new Selects, applies and describes appropriate phonological, orthographic and morphological generalisations and strategies when spelling in a range of contexts EN2-HANDW-02 new Uses digital technologies to create texts EN2-UARL-01 new Identifies and describes how ideas are represented in literature and strategically uses similar representations when creating texts EN3-OLC-01 new Communicates to wide audiences with social and cultural awareness, by interacting and presenting, and by analysing and evaluating for understanding EN1-UARL-01 new Understands and responds to literature by creating texts using similar structures, intentional language choices and features appropriate to audience and purpose EN1-VOCAB-01 new Understands and effectively uses Tier 1, taught Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary to extend and elaborate ideas EN1-OLC-01 new Communicates effectively by using interpersonal conventions and language to extend and elaborate ideas for social and learning interactions EN3-VOCAB-01 new Extends Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary through interacting, wide reading and writing, morphological analysis and generating precise definitions for specific contexts EN3-CWT-01 new Plans, creates and revises written texts for multiple purposes and audiences through selection of text features, sentence-level grammar, punctuation and word-level language ENE-UARL-01 new Understands and responds to literature read to them EN3-SPELL-01 new Automatically applies taught phonological, orthographic and morphological generalisations and strategies when spelling in a range of contexts, and justifies spelling strategies used to spell unfamiliar words EN3-HANDW-01 new Sustains a legible, fluent and automatic handwriting style EN3-HANDW-02 new Selects digital technologies to suit audience and purpose to create texts EN3-UARL-01 new Analyses representations of ideas in literature through narrative, character, imagery, symbol and connotation, and adapts these representations when creating texts EN3-UARL-02 new Analyses representations of ideas in literature through genre and theme that reflect perspective and context, argument and authority, and adapts these representations when creating texts
VCELY338 Participate in informal debates and plan, rehearse and deliver presentations for defined audiences and purposes incorporating accurate and sequenced content and multimodal elements VCELY175 Deliver short oral presentations to peers, using appropriate voice levels, articulation, body language, gestures and eye contact VCELY211 Make short presentations, speaking clearly and using appropriate voice and pace, and using some introduced text structures and language VCELY308 Plan, rehearse and deliver presentations incorporating learned content and taking into account the particular audiences and purposes such as informative, persuasive and imaginative, including multimodal elements VCELY245 Rehearse and deliver short presentations on familiar and new topics, speaking clearly and varying tone, volume and pace appropriately, and using supportive props VCELY276 Plan and deliver short presentations, providing some key details in logical sequence, using appropriate tone, pace, pitch and volume

Australian Curriculum covers QLD / SA / WA / NT / TAS / ACT.

Differentiation

Modifications

  • Model how to introduce a character before students complete their planning page.
  • Allow students to work with a partner to rehearse their character introduction and spoken line.
  • Reduce the speaking component to a single sentence for students requiring additional support.
  • Encourage younger students to draw their character rather than adding detailed written responses.
  • Provide familiar books or classroom library books for students who need help selecting a character.

Extensions

  • Ask students to explain why they chose their character and what makes them memorable.
  • Invite students to perform additional dialogue or act out a short scene from their book.
  • Have students write a short character profile to accompany their costume.
  • Display completed badges and planning pages as part of a Book Week classroom display.
  • Pair this activity with The Fluency Performance Board to further develop expressive oral presentation skills.

Teach it your way

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