Masks and disguises: World Book Day

Objective & content

This Look Closer episode (Masks and disguises mini-series, episode 141) is a one-minute documentary about World Book Day in Britain and Ireland, told with drawings. A single narrator shows children in costume on their way to school on the first Thursday in March, dressed as book characters such as Harry Potter, Matilda or Paddington Bear, then explains the homemade costumes, the reading at school and the book token. Learners meet the present continuous (They're going to school), there's to describe a picture, the present simple for what happens on the day (come, make, read, gets), can (Who can you see?) and would like to in the closing question, with vocabulary for clothes, school, shops and celebrations. Learners listen, then answer the 10 questions in the app: 7 on facts and 3 on vocabulary (character, book token, costume).

Materials & prerequisites

You need the episode (audio and slideshow) and the printables: a one-page pupil pack and teacher pack (the text, three pictures, the key words and the 10 questions, with the answers highlighted in the teacher pack), a pupil question sheet and a teacher answer key. There is no lesson plan. Learners should know clothes, school and the present simple with they. Costume and character name the subject, so they are taught for understanding; book token is explained in the episode (It's a little ticket), and wizard, pirate and bear are shown in the pictures. The book and character names stay in English.

Curriculum alignment

Tagged people-and-characters (6e, "Personnes et personnages", study topic "Masks and costumes", Cycle 3). The episode targets CEFR level A1+.