Get children and families in your area excited about stories and bedtime reading by throwing a fun Pyjamarama party.
If you’re one of our book-gifting partners, we’re sending you free books, fantastic activity sheets and fun rhyme sheets to give to the children and families you work with during Pyjamarama week.
We’ve rounded up some great ideas for Pyjamarama events and activities that little ones and their families will love.
Get into the Pyjamarama spirit and invite families along to a daytime ‘sleepover’. Ask everyone to wear their favourite pyjamas or a comfy outfit and put on lots of fun, themed activities.
You could try some of these:
Nothing beats a good story. Make a reading corner and encourage families to cosy up together with their new book or take part in a group reading of the story.
Children love fun, interactive storytelling, so ask them to join in with lots of noises and actions as you read the story. They’ll really enjoy all the vehicle noises and actions in our Pyjamarama 2019 book Car, Car, Truck, Jeep.
Creative activities are great fun and really help to bring stories to life. Why not make up your own crafts themed around Car, Car, Truck, Jeep or other great bedtime stories.
You could also try some of these:
Pyjamarama activities produced by BookTrust
Here’s a great idea from Gloucester Libraries which increases footfall to the library and will get kids engaged with Pyjamarama.
Ask children to bring one of their toys to the library one afternoon. Once they arrive, tie a name tag on each toy and ask the children to say goodbye, leaving their teddies behind for an overnight library party.
Once all the children have left, have fun taking photos of the teddies exploring and getting up to all kinds of important library business! You could even post the photos on social media so families can follow along at home.
In the morning, invite the children back to the library where they can collect their toys and hear about everything that happened the night before. You could even make up a story using the photos you’ve taken. The children will be so excited and will love being able to read to their toys the next day!
Invite parents and carers in to a fun Pyjamarama storytime, where you can talk about the value bedtime (or anytime!) stories and model some great storytelling techniques.
At the end of the session they can try out the tips using their own copies of Car, Car, Truck, Jeep.
You can find lots of examples of great approaches to reading on our reading tips page.
It’s easy to make Pyjamarama part of events and activities you already run.
Why not theme your Rhymetime around bedtime songs for the week using our Pyjamarama rhyme sheets, or you could use some of our Pyjamarama craft ideas for any messy art sessions you hold.
You could throw one special day of celebrations or a series of more relaxed drop-in sessions throughout the week – make the structure, scale and timings work for you and your setting.
Have you got any great ideas for celebrating Pyjamarama? Let us know by emailing us at [email protected], or tweeting us @Booktrust using #Pyjamarama.