Save Time and Money (9 Awesome DIY Book Character Costumes +41 Ideas )
Teacher Book Character Costumes
Teacher book character costumes or storybook character costumes for teachers didn't exist growing up in Jamaica. There wasn’t a Halloween or many opportunities to “dress up,” so when I became a teacher and learned about diy storybook character costumes for teachers, I was truly excited. I love coming up with book character day ideas or ideas for book character costumes and now it has become my Superbowl of sorts.
There are several opportunities during the school year when my teacher book character or diy storybook character costumes for teachers list comes in handy. For example, during the actual storybook character day, spirit days or weeks, author celebrations , Read Across America day or week, on Dr. Seuss day, Grinch day or other Christmas festivities and also during Halloween.
Since schools are operating so differently, I wanted to help homeschooling parents or those engaged in distance learning with a challenge. Let's challenge our children, or work with them based on a book they've read or a favorite book, to create a diy children's book character costume. Let them use their creativity and on hand supplies to bring their diy children's book character costume to life. These diy book character costumes can also be based on special themes like Children's Book Week.
Share your creations on social media with the tag or hashtag #diychildrensbookcharactercostumechallenge. Let's make and keep learning fun as much as possible.
At my school, we do not celebrate Halloween, per say, but students and teachers are able to dress up as their favorite storybook characters. Way more than the students, the teachers love this opportunity to show our students our personalities and we often dress up in creative teacher book character costumes, on our own, or as grade level teams.
What is Book Character Day or Storybook Character Day?
Storybook or Book Character day is a day when students and teachers dress up as their favorite book or storybook characters. Parents and teachers alike are always frantically searching for ideas for book character costumes ideas for boys, girls, adults and grade level teams. Some typically select classic storybook characters, but others venture out to the top storybook character at that time. I love Book Character Day or Storybook Character Day (depending on your school) and dress up faithfully each year.
How to Make Book Character Costumes at Home?
For the past few years, I have tried to spend as little money as possible, which means looking into some book characters that wear normal clothes or as I call them my DIY book character costumes. Since becoming a mom, I've also had to cut down on the amount of time that goes into my ideas for book character costumes and find some easy to make teacher book character costumes, while still coming up with some awesome teacher book character costumes (if I may say so myself).
These 9 time and money saving DIY book character costumes for teachers will work for adults, grade level teams, boys or girls. I wanted to share them here with you to help as you prepare. I think unanimously these have also been the top teacher book character costumes I've taken on in my students' opinions as well. Here are my 9 best teacher book character costume ideas, in no particular order.
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1. Hermione Granger
This teacher book character costume was an easy DIY book character costume to create. My Hermione Granger idea for a book character costume extremely simple. Best of all, all the pieces for this homemade story book character costume came completely from my closet. I combined a black skirt and gray sweater with a white button up shirt. Then I found a tie in the same color family as the Hogwarts’ tie. I also found a stick from outside to use as my makeshift wand and voila a time efficient and budget friendly teacher book character costume for Hermione. This DIY book character costume for teachers was cheap and was easily a favorite idea for book character costumes with all my little Harry Potter fans.
2. Superwoman
Another costume that is a great idea for book character costumes for boys and girls or could work as the perfect teacher book character costume was Superman (in my case Superwoman). This is another teacher book character costume that I put together mostly from my closet and a teeny, tiny bit my husband's. If we're splitting hairs, it's really Clark Kent mid transformation, but let's get back to the outfit. For this idea for a book character costume, I combined black pants and a white button up shirt from my closet and wore a Superman shirt (my husband's) and a pair of fake eyeglasses (also from my husband's closet) to mimic this famous superhero getting ready to spring into action. Of course, remember to leave a few buttons undone to reveal the Superman shirt underneath. If storybook character costume day has caught you off guard and you need a quick DIY book character costume for a teacher, then this one is perfect.
3. Robin Hood
I had to add this next option to my DIY book character costumes for teacher. This idea for a book character costume would work for teachers, boys or girls and would also be great for a grade level team (see more about that at the end of this section).
For my DIY book character costume, I styled an olive green dress that I found in my closet with brown tights and brown boots. You might want to find a pointed hat online ( I did the costume without the hat). If you want to add more to this idea for a book character costume, you can add a bow and arrow (I didn't).
All you'll need after that is a band of merry men or women to complete your teacher book character costume. The students immediately recognized my teacher book character costume, even though I was sure they wouldn't and my girls were tickled I had taken over from Robin Hood.
4. Fern from Charlotte’s Web
This is another favorite in my DIY book character costumes for teachers and for girls. Charlotte's Web is easily one of my favorite books to expose young readers to at the elementary level. It is such a feel good book that teaches valuable lessons on friendship and perseverance. the humor in the book is also just right and it helps them to expand their vocabulary. This is probably why I truly enjoyed becoming Fern for a day with this teacher book character costume.
To pull this idea for a book character costume off, I put on a pair of jeans (you could also use overalls) and a plaid shirt. I took my teacher book character costume to the next level by pinning a fake spider on my shoulder. Then, I borrowed a stuffed pig from one of my coworker’s daughter. Tada! Sweet Fern is ready to save her friend, Wilbur in one of my easiest DIY book character costumes for teachers.
5. Doc McStuffins
This was easily my most beloved teacher book character costume for a very sentimental reason. It is also just a great idea for book character costumes for teachers or for girls. Four years ago, the day after I found out I was pregnant, I became the best toy doctor around. Literally, I had made a run to Goodwill for the items I needed to bring this idea for a teacher book character costume to life. I found all the pieces I needed for my DIY book character costume cheaply and in no time.
As I played dress up, I waited for my pregnancy test ( I hadn't been feeling well and my husband and I had been trying). Right when I had all the items on to execute my idea for a Doc McStuffin book character costume and was smiling, pleased at myself, I looked down and found I had an even bigger reason to smile. I'll never forget this story book character dress up day or this teacher book character costume because I left work early to have an official pregnancy test, at my doctor's office, still dressed in costume, and the nurses and people in the waiting room were ticked pink that Doc McStuffins had come to check on them.
Speaking of teacher book character costumes: To become Doc McStuffins, I purchased a purple long sleeved striped shirt, a pink skirt, purple leggings (I had to settle for purple because I couldn't find any dotted tights. I finished off the look with an over sized white shirt that served as a white lab coat, a purple headband, two pigtails and a Doc McStuffins' stethoscope and kit. Doctor Harris gave way to Doc McStuffins with a secret friend in tow in her tummy for this book character costume idea.
6. Mouse from If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
This was definitely one of the top teacher book character costumes I had the pleasure of putting together. It is another one of my favorite ideas for book character costumes and one of the most recent. It’s a favorite from my DIY book character costumes for teachers because I had a nifty prop. It would be an excellent choice for a teacher book character costume or a great idea for a book character costume for boys and girls.
My coworker made this really cute cookie for me from cardboard and a brown marker. She added ribbon and tape to the back to create a handle and give me a place to hold the cookie. For my teacher book character costume, I wore a white long sleeved shirt, overalls, and a 4 piece mouse kit (ears, nose, tail and and a bow) that I purchased from Amazon. I added pink high top sneakers to finish everything off with this teacher book character costume of the mouse from If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.
The response from children was amazing to this teacher book character costume of the mouse from "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie". Most all of them were familiar with this children's book character and giggled that Dr. Harris had turned into a mouse. This was easily one of my better ideas for book character costumes and was very inexpensive and almost virtually DIY or homemade (except for the mouse accessories) that I found cheaply on Amazon. There is also the potential for a grade level costume here since there are so many books in this series like "If You Give a Pig a Party," "If You Give a Moose a Muffin."If You Give a Dog a Donut" and "If You a Dog a Donut."
7. Olivia the Pig from "Olivia"
Olivia is very popular in the world of children's book characters and was another student favorite from my DIY book character costumes for teachers looks book character costumes. If you haven’t read an Olivia book, I highly advise you to change that immediately. My Olivia the pig idea for a book character costume was another easy to make book character costume.
To pull this teacher book character costume of Olivia the pig off, I went shopping at the Goodwill again. This time, I bought a red dress as a part of my idea for this book character costume. I added a white button up shirt from my closet under the red dress.
Then, I added red striped stockings and accessories from a pig kit (nose, ear headband and a tail) that I easily found on Amazon to complete my teacher book character costume transformation to Olivia the pig. It was absolutely adorable to watch students' eyes light up in recognition from this Olivia the Pig idea for a book character costume. Can you imagine how cute this would be on a little girl if I was able to pull it off?
8. Arthur the Aardvark
Arthur the Aardvark is a beloved cook character. He was among the simplest of the DIY book character costumes for teachers I have dressed up as to date. This teacher book character costume was completely made from items found in my house. Arthur's costume was an idea for a book character costume that I came up with the night before Storybook Character Day and like I said came completely from my closet. This teacher book character costume was born out of desperation to find an idea, any idea for a book character costume.
Again, I must give credit to my husband for my Arthur teacher book character costume as well because I did borrow one accessory (the glasses) from him. I like this idea for a book character costume because it will work for adults as well as boys and girls.
For my Arthur the Aardvark teacher book character costume, I wore a white button up shirt, yellow sweater and a pair of blue pants. Next, I put my hair up in 2 buns to mimic Arthur’s famous ears. Then I finished off this idea for a book character costume with a pair of my husband’s non-prescription glasses.
Does your school celebrate Dr. Seuss day? Mine definitely does and I take the opportunity to bring one of my DIY book character costumes for teachers to life every year. This past school year, I got to bring an idea for a book character costume to life that I have been waiting to try for some time. Who's the most seussical cat? You guessed it...The Cat in the Hat.
I'd have to say that to date that the Cat in the Hat is one of my best ideas for book character costume. Not only is The Cat in the Hat a top storybook character, but he is also a great fit for book character costumes for girls and boys and is a great option for teacher book character costumes too.
9. The Cat in the Hat
I think every kindergarten child loved me on this Dr. Seuss day because of my teacher book character costume. They looked at me in awe, came up to touch me and just over all marveled at the sight of me. To create this idea for a Dr. Seuss book character costume, I wore black pants with a black long sleeved shirt and black high top Converses. Then I paired the items from my closet that created the all black outfit with a red and white striped top hat and the white hair/red bow kit. Voila an easy and for the most part DIY or homemade teacher book character costume that is sure to bring you lots of positive attention.
The most fun part of this teacher book character costume was that the kindergarten teachers asked me to lead their parade around the school, since all of their students were dressed as Dr. Seuss characters. Every time I look at these pictures, I break out into a huge smile. I may just elect to wear my Cat in the Hat teacher book character costume on every Dr.Seuss day from now on, but maybe not because then I couldn't try to bring to life the other ideas for book character costumes that I have.
Where to Buy Book Character Costumes?
On the limited occasions that I've bought or had to buy items to complete my diy book character costumes for teachers, I've found what I needed on Amazon or by visiting Goodwill. The items have typically been cheap and added just what was need to complete my storybook character costume for teachers.
Wish List of DIY Book Characters Costume for Teachers to Try in the Near Future
I keep a running list of DIY book character costumes for teachers that I think will be well received and could be easily created. I have a combination of classic storybook characters and also some of the more recent trending characters for students today. At several points in the school year, I will also poll my students to ask them for ideas of book character costumes. Through that combination of actions here are the teacher book character costumes that I hope to share with you soon.
1. Ms.Frizzle from the Magic School Bus
2. Elephant and Piggie from Elephant and Piggie
3. Mary Poppins
4. Inspector Gadget
5. Waldo from Where's Waldo
6. Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz
7. Madeline
8. Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games
9. Thing 1 and/or Thing 2
I have to admit this has become one of my favorite DIY storybook character costumes because I was able to bring it to life with my son. It's even more special because it was his choice. I gave him a few options and showed him pictures and he excitedly selected this one. You should have seen the look on his face when I started putting together the different elements of our costume. This costume was simple to execute but had a great impact once viewed. My son was so proud of our DIY storybook character costume he asked me to post it to social media to share it with friends and family. They were as impressed as the people who say us at school. Want to create your own DIY storybook character costume of Thing 1 and Thing 2. Here's what you'll need.
The last step to completing this DIY storybook character costume was some black yarn and a printed and laminated Thing 1 and or Thing 2 sign. Let me know if you are able to create this DIY book character costume.
10. Fox in Socks
11. Emily Elizabeth from Clifford the Big Red Dog
12. Fancy Nancy
13. Junie B. Jones
14. Sam from Green Eggs and Ham
15. Paddington
16. Camilla Cream from a Bad Case of the Stripes
17. Matilda
18. Little Red Riding Hood
19. Pinkalicious
Since my initial posting, I've had a chance to check one more idea for diy book character costumes off my children's book character list. Pinkalicious is one of the current top storybook characters for my kindergarten and first grade students, so I wanted to bring this teacher book character costume to life for them.
All that's needed to bring this DIY book book character costume for teachers to life was a lot of pink. It can come in the form of a frilly dress or pink shirt, pants and tutu as I did in my idea for a Pinkalicious book character costume. To bring this Pinkalicious teacher book character costume together you need to add wings, a crown and wand.
20. Silverlicious
21. Purplicious
Storybook Character Costume Ideas for Boys
Boys can be challenging, when it comes to finding ideas for book character costumes. They want great storybook character costume ideas, but have so many oppositions. If you're a male teacher, it's even more challenging. To help with that problem, here'a a list of some of the top storybook characters that boys love as inspiration for your ideas for book character costumes for boys and diy book character costumes for teachers who are male.
1. Greg from Diary of a Wimpy Kid
2. Superheroes: Batman, Flash, and the list goes on
3. Most of the Paw Patrol
4. Dogman
5. Fly Guy
6. Most of the PJ Masks
7. Mr. Potato Head
8. Wreck it Ralph
9. Curious George or the Man in the Yellow hat
10. Harry Potter
Ideas for Grade Level Teams DIY Book Character Costume for Teachers
Are you a part of an awesome grade level team and want some diy book character costumes for teachers that your team can bring to life? Look no further. I have seen most of these executed very well. So well, that it makes me jealous that my team is typically not together on Book Character Day and so are unable to plan ideas for book character costumes together. Here are some suggestions of teacher book character costumes that your team could put together, and most of them are from story book characters that wear normal clothes.
1. The Incredibles
2. Main characters from Alice in Wonderland
3. Main characters from the Wizard of Oz
4. Crayon box
5. Snow White and the Dwarfs
6. Toy Story
7. Lion King/Lion Guard
8. Pete the Cat
9. Avengers
10. Frozen
I hope I was able to inspire you with my diy book character costumes for teachers, boys, girls and grade level teams. I hope this collection of ideas for book character costumes is able to take away some of the anxiety you feel on one of my favorite school days. Go ahead and pin it for later use.
Be sure to come back and let me know if you used any of my suggestions for diy book character costumes for teachers, girls, boys and grade levels. Speaking of, I need to go ahead and pick my own costume because Dr. Seuss Day and storybook character costume day have a nasty habit of sneaking up on me. These ideas are also great for Halloween.
Have a friend, who is a teacher or mom who struggles to find ideas for book character costumes? Share this post with them. They will be grateful.
As I continue to poll my students and come across other great DIY book character costumes for teachers, boys and grade level teams, I will add them to the list. Don't forget to pin this post for later and come back to let me know if one of my ideas for book character costumes worked for you.
Enjoyed learning about the best ideas for book character costumes and teacher book character costumes? Please pin or share it with others.
Are you a teacher who is feeling burned out ? Need tips to help you be the best teacher this year and all the ones to follow? Need great educational resources to keep your students engaged? Remember in order to be there for your students and be the most positive and influential teacher you can, you must take care of you.
These tips helped me to be more lighthearted and fun in my approaches to teaching. They also helped me to be more adventurous and creative in my approaches to helping student succeed. One such approach was to implement Flexible Seating in my classroom. Another was to take on the Chess Club at my school and even to find and host tournaments for my students to compete in. My latest large change in my approach to teaching was to create a bat habitat with my students.
Each of these decisions, from completely embracing teacher book character costumes and experimenting with diy book character costumes for teachers to finding more effective ways to care for myself and better meet the needs of my students, has made me a better teacher. What are some things you do with or for your students that helps you to practice self care and ultimately be a better teacher? Don't foget to let me know if any of my diy storybook character costume ideas works for you.