Created for Book Week 2026
Celebrate Dawn by Marc Martin with this cross-curricular activity pack, designed to inspire creativity, observation and descriptive writing in primary classrooms.
This resource is packed with craft, literacy and maths activities inspired by the wetland creatures waking as morning breaks. Perfect for planning a whole-day Symphony of Stories experience or weaving into your Book Week celebrations!
What's included:
Book Craft
3D Butterfly Life Cycle Craft - students colour, cut and fold a concertina-style 3D craft showing the egg, caterpillar, chrysalis and butterfly stages (colour and black & white versions included)
Differentiated Literacy Activities
Open-ended writing prompts - respond to prompts inspired by the book's dawn creatures and themes, with matching lined writing templates
Hunting for alliteration - hunt for alliterative words in the book, then write original alliterative sentences (includes a define-and-example version)
Nouns & verbs - sort nouns and verbs from the book, or hunt for original examples
Powerful verbs - match the author's strong verbs to simpler synonyms, then spotlight and use powerful verbs in original sentences
Picture prompt - choose a picture or scene from the book to inspire a written story
Differentiated Mathematics Activities
Dawn word problems - 2-digit addition & subtraction, multiplication & division level 1, 3-digit addition & subtraction, and multiplication & division level 2
Reflections - design a mirror reflection on the water, or draw reflections of 2D shapes; includes a translations, reflections and rotations sorting activity
Data: favourite creature - survey classmates on their favourite dawn creature and graph the results
Design Activities
Symmetrical creatures - design a butterfly, beetle or dragonfly with a matching wing pattern on both sides
Book cover - design a cover for Dawn or a companion title, in the illustrator's style
One word - choose a powerful dawn word and design an illustration to match
Want it all?
Grab the matching Dawn slide deck to bring the story to life. Includes writing prompts and maths tasks (linked to the worksheets), as well as additional design prompts.
Hive Members Bonus
Enjoy exclusive artwork and themed slide backgrounds to level-up your Book Week experience!
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