15th November 2018

Book character dress up ideas for teachers

Book character dress up ideas

Children of all ages love dressing up and National Book Day or World Book Week offer pupils the chance to engage with their favourite books and inject a sense of fun into the study of literature.

Many costumes suitable for teachers can be pulled together at relatively short notice, but some require a little more preparation. Here are some of the best book character dress up ideas for teachers who want to join in the fun of Book Week.

Book character dress up ideas: easy

Mary Poppins, the magical nanny from P.L. Travers’ novels, is one of the most iconic characters in children’s literature. She is also one of the easiest characters for female teachers to dress up as because many of the components of her outfit are everyday basics.

Mary’s outfit consists of a white shirt or blouse, dark blazer, dark midi or maxi skirt, black tights and black shoes. Accessorise with a red bow tie, a flowered red hat and of course a vintage-style handbag and large black umbrella.

Another easy Book Week costume idea derived from everyday clothes is to dress as one of the characters from Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings series. Gandalf is an easy costume choice, requiring a long belted robe (a modified dressing gown would do the trick) along with a pointed wizard’s hat, staff and false beard.

Frodo is an equally easy choice. For a hobbit costume, all you need is a white shirt, green or brown trousers and a simple waistcoat, plus a pair of braces if you have them. Over the top put a hooded cloak in green or brown. To round the outfit off, find a sparkly brooch like the one that Galadriel gives Frodo and use it to pin your cloak together at the neck.

You could also draw inspiration from one of the many Roald Dahl characters. Willy Wonka from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is an easy and iconic costume. A purple suit jacket, waistcoat and patterned shirt in contrasting colours with a brightly coloured top hat and a cane.

Your pupils are also easy to improvise costumes for. You could also dress as Charlie Bucket in an old jumper, school trousers and a flat cap, or as Veruca Salt in a pink dress, white tights and fur coat. Or dress all in blue and paint your face blue for Violet Beauregarde. Make sure that you accessorise with a bar of chocolate and a homemade Golden Ticket.

Book character dress up ideas: period costumes

As many works of literature commonly studied in school are at least a century old, period costume can be used to create many book characters. Old-fashioned clothes are relatively cheap and easy to come by.

Flapper costumes can be used to create Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan from The Great Gatsby, while more conservative twenties attire can be used to create the characters from Mrs Dalloway.

A Victorian costume for gentleman can be used to create one of the iconic characters from a Charles Dickens novel, such as Scrooge or Fagin, or a gothic character such as Victor Frankenstein Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde. A Victorian or Regency women’s outfit could be used to create Lizzy Bennet, Jane Eyre or Mina Harker from Dracula.

If you really want to pull out all the stops for Book Week, don a ruff and hose or gown and dress as your favourite Shakespeare character. Don glitter, wings and dramatic face paint as one of the fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, or arm yourself with a fake human skull and go as Hamlet.

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