William Shakespeare is believed to have been born and died on 23 April (in 1564 and 1616 respectively). Which is why the UK celebrates World Book Night on that date (and St George's Day, England's national day!)
Normally, World Book Night is filled with book readings and events, as tens of thousands of books are given away. Like everything else, it's having to go digital this year. People all over the UK are being encouraged to participate in a #ReadingHour from 7 to 8 p.m. on 23 April, in the tradition of bedtime stories. Whether it's reading a story out loud as a family, or curling up in an armchair to read for an hour, the idea is to share afterwards what you enjoyed reading.
That's a really easy distance activity for pupils. Why not ask them to give a short book report of a book they love (even if they read it in French). Keep the number of required words short to encourage pupils to come up with a punchy text that really makes others want to read the book.
Reading the Legend of St George
You could combine both celebrations by having pupils listen to a version of the legend of George and the Dragon.
This short video (2'40") from the British Council could be used from A1+.
This is a nice, simple audio version from Storynory, suitable from A2. You can download the audio to make it easy for pupils to access. It is 7 minutes long, so you may want to choose a section, or assign different sections to different pupils. You can see the text on the page.
Tag(s) : "April" "audio" "British culture" "national days" "Shakespeare" "St George" "storytelling" "video" "world book day"