What is World Book Day?
World Book Day is a yearly charity event designed to encourage more children and families to enjoy reading because reading for pleasure changes lives. Created by UNESCO in 1995, World Book Day is now celebrated in over 100 countries.
The charity World Book Day aim to support children's autonomy in book choice and offer every child and young person the opportunity to have a book of their own. They do this by creating and releasing special £1/€1.50 books and providing tokens to the schools that have signed up for the scheme.
Sensory Story Training
Tap here to access this training to improve your own practise as you build your own bank of stories.
There are also a growing number of both adapted and original sensory stories in my Google Storage Drive and within my Sensory Curriculum
There are also a growing number of my sensory story adaptations on YouTube if you're more of a visual learner!
My favourite stories
To celebrate World Book Day, here are some of my favourite stories for my sensory learners that I have enjoyed telling over the years.
You can explore the full and growing collection here: MY SENSORY STORY FOLDER
A beautiful and engaging story about a young child having a bad day, and how that is improved by others engaging with her.
Voyage To Arghan by Joanna Grace
A young girl is sent into space to search for rare feathers. This book has pictures as well as tastes, sights, sounds, smells and touches!
Another story from Joanna Grace's sensory collection, Ernest and I is a comforting book that describes the fun and challenges of life at sea.
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
This book is a comforting, rhyming and soothing classic that describes a bunny saying goodnight to everything that he can see.
The Changing Of The Seasons by Jordan Garratt (me!)
This book is a feast for the senses, with the sights, sounds, tastes, and touches of all four seasons described. It also includes guidance on how to make it into an accessible sensory story for your learners.
There are more being release every month over the next few years, see the growing collection here: MY SENSORY STORIES
The Animal Boogie by Barefoot Books
A fun, colourful and repetitive book which introduces you to 6 different jungle animals and their dances! It also includes a link to a video animation and audio singalong version.
Handa's Surprise by Eileen Browne
Richly illustrated, this charming book is engaging and funny.
This book is always a winner with my sensory learners! It's silly, funny and bound to entertain.
Lulu Loves Colours by Camilla Reid
This wonderfully interactive lift-the-flap book follows along as Lulu shares some of her favourite colours for painting.
Hello, World! Weather by Jill Mcdonald
This colourful book introduces learners to weather through the changes that happen in a garden - from blooming new flowers to snow and rain. Each page features helpful prompts for engaging with your children.
Commotion in the Ocean by Giles Andreae
There are many versions of these wonderful, colourful rhyming non-fictions books by Giles. They make for fantastic sensory stories as the facts are set out in easy to process short verses with wonderfully descriptive and humorous language.
That's Not My... collection of books by Osborne Books
Originally designed for babies, these books just as they are offer small sensory swatches to explore, I often find my students struggle to navigate or get anything at all out of the tiny swatches- BUT what if you take the stories and turn them into sensory stories? Pairing the simple and fun language with rich multi-sensory experiences?
Maybe I just love this one because it is incredibly nostalgic for me (showing my age!) Each page offers a sensory opportunity to make the book more meaningful for your sensory learners. All items easily found around your home or classroom too!
Kipper's Birthday by Mick Inkpen
This story acts as a great social story for what a person can expect on their birthday. By exploring it in a sensory way, the children are exposed to and can better prepare for the upcoming event. Hopefully this means they are less anxious and can enjoy the day more.
Meg and Mog series by Helen Nicoll
This range of books is great around halloween time. With lots of predictable halloween imagery, a sensory story using these books could offer an accessible and meaningful halloween experience.
Monkey Puzzle by Julia Donaldson
I use many Julia Donaldson books as sensory stories, sometimes quite wordy so often I paraphrase! But they offer a wonderful story arc and exciting tales with important morals attached. There are so many of her stories now that you can almost guarantee that she will have one for any topic!
Other favourites of hers that we love:
This story is fantastic for a colour or weather topic, but most of all it is a fantastic opportunity to teach inclusion and celebrating difference.
A Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr
We often use this story when learning about the home. The tiger explores any aspects of the home, so it is a great way to explore 'home words'. We like to pair it with plastic and real foods, tea sets, water play and more.
I think I must end up telling this story at least once per year, it also appears a few times within my core word programme. For many reasons, but mostly it's simplicity and beautifully repeating structure. The animal descriptions used are fantastic and lend themselves well to be adapted into rich sensory experiences.
The Three Little Pigs (traditional)
Any version of this classic tale is wonderful. A wonderful repeating structure and many opportunities to use the senses to add meaning and engagement.
The Little Red Hen (traditional)
A lovely story and helping others, an important topic for all people to learn, but extra tricky when a person has high support needs. Offering ways they can be helpful and share tasks is very important for self esteem and mental health. This story acts as a great introduction to the topic.
The Gingerbread Man (traditional)
This is a great story for adding in movement, smells, repeating phrases, animal pattern and texture and so much more!
Hooray for Fish by Lucy Cousins
This story is PACKED FULL of descriptive language, pick carefully and you can create a beautifully engaging under the sea sensory story. There is a beautiful animation of this story on youtube to show too!
Brown Bear Brown Bear, what do you see? by Eric Carle
This story is wonderful for learning about colours and animals, two classic topics that schools like to cover. This range of books is fantastic for learning about what we see and what we hear which lends itself to a sensory story too!
Other books similar:
Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?
