These activities support pupils in developing critical thinking skills, imagination, creativity, and communication. They allow them to interact with the book cover and develop their own interpretations and connections to the story within.

Predict the Story: Ask the children to examine the cover and make predictions about what they think the story might be about. Have them share their ideas and discuss their reasoning behind their predictions. You might ask children to draw or write about something they think will happen and something they think definitely won't feature in the book.
Choose the Title: Cover the book title. Challenge the children to come up with a title for the book based solely on the cover. Encourage them to think about the images, colours, and come up with creative and descriptive titles. You might have a class vote for the favourite!
Design a New Cover: Have the children imagine that they are the book cover designer. Ask them to create a new cover for the book based on their own predictions or interpretation of the story. This activity allows them to be creative and think about how visuals can represent a book's content. You might like to use this Giglets book design template.
Write a Blurb: Ask the children to write a short blurb or summary of the book based on the cover. Encourage them to use their imagination and think about what the book might be about. This activity helps them practice summarising and expressing their ideas in writing.
Compare and Contrast: Provide the children with a few different book covers from similar genres or themes. Ask them to compare and contrast the covers, discussing what they notice, which one they find most appealing, and why.
Dramatise: Choose a scene from the cover or one that the children expect to appear in the book and have pupils act it out. They can take on the roles of the characters and use their creativity to bring the scene to life. This activity encourages dramatic play and helps children explore the story through movement and expression. If the text is non-fiction, you might encourage pupils to take on the role of author and brainstorm the research that needs done.
True, False, Not Sure: Encourage your pupils to say or write down the things they think are true, false or that they are not sure about.

Front Covers and Illustrations

Front Covers and Illustrations