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Written by the team at Dashing Ducks Castle Hill and Croydon
Book Week 2026 at Dashing Ducks: Costume Parades, Wally Sightings and a Room Challenge
Book Week 2026 wrapped up at the end of August, and both of our centres are still finding glitter in unexpected places. The Children’s Book Council of Australia ran this year’s Book Week from 22 to 28 August with the theme Symphony of Stories, and our Castle Hill and Croydon teams planned a full week around it. Costumes were only the start.
Castle Hill also received a video none of us will forget, from the Tree of Wisdom, no less. That story deserves a post of its own, so we have given it one. You can read about the day The Wiggles sent our ducklings a video once you are done here.
The Book Parade at Castle Hill
Partway through the week, families joined us at Castle Hill for our annual Book Parade. The morning went the way a good book parade should: a slow lap of very proud ducklings in costumes that someone at home had clearly stayed up late finishing. The effort families went to was incredible, and our educators are still talking about it. There was even a fruit platter laid out to match The Very Hungry Caterpillar, with the book propped up beside it for reference.
Thank you to every parent and grandparent who came along, and to everyone who glued and sewed the night before. If you have ever wondered what the community feel of our Castle Hill long day care centre is like, a morning like this one is the honest answer.
Where's Wally? Croydon's educators go undercover
Over at our Croydon preschool, Book Week ran all week long. The children arrived dressed as their favourite characters. There were princess gowns, a pint-sized firefighter and plenty of storybook heroes. Our educators threw themselves in too: five of them spent a day dressed as Wally from Where’s Wally, bringing the world of the books into the centre.
The team built the whole week around one simple idea: reading brings adventure to life. For the finale, Woody and the little green Alien from Toy Story spent the day at Croydon, playing and laughing alongside the children rather than just posing for photos. The children are still pointing out red and white stripes wherever they find them.
The Book Week room challenge
Back at Castle Hill, our educators were handed a challenge: transform your space and bring a chosen story to life. The foyer became Jack and the Beanstalk. The preschool room was taken over by fairies. The toddlers’ room turned into the world of Inside Out, and the babies’ room filled up with animals.
Choosing a winner between them felt unfair, so we handed the decision to our families. The vote is running on our Instagram, where the room with the most comments takes out the 2026 Book Week Room Challenge. Voting is open as we write this, and the educators are watching the tally closely. Flick through the reel below and cast a vote for your favourite.
Why a week of stories matters
A week of dress-ups is fun on its own, but there is a reason early childhood educators take Book Week seriously. Under the Early Years Learning Framework, one of the five outcomes we plan for is that children become effective communicators. Weeks like this one are where that outcome gets built. A child who has been a fairy all morning has been telling stories all morning. A child studying a Wally costume is noticing details and checking them against the page. The Raising Children Network gives families the same advice in plainer terms: reading with young children, every day if you can, is one of the best things you can do for their language.
Book Week is over for another year. The costumes are in the wash, and somewhere in a cupboard five Wally jumpers are waiting for next August. If you are weighing up care options for your little one, or you would just like to see our rooms in person, get in touch and come and visit us at Castle Hill or Croydon. We would love to show you around.
Come and see the rooms for yourself
Some things are easier to show than describe. If you are weighing up child care at Castle Hill or Croydon and want to see how weeks like Book Week come to life here, come and spend twenty minutes in the room. Book a visit, or read what other families have said about us first.
Dashing Ducks
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