Character Orchestra Match Up — A Symphony of Stories Book Week Activity

The CBCA Book Week 2026 theme, Symphony of Stories, celebrates the many voices, characters and stories that come together to create a rich reading experience. This engaging literacy activity encourages students to think deeply about character traits while making meaningful connections between literature and music.

Students read The Missing Melody, a story about teamwork, perseverance and the power of working together to solve a problem. They then select a character from the story and decide which orchestral instrument best represents that character, supporting their thinking with evidence from the text. A blank template is also included, allowing teachers to use the activity with any story, novel or picture book.

This activity provides valuable practice with character analysis, making inferences and citing textual evidence while connecting directly to the spirit of Book Week. The open-ended format encourages creativity, discussion and deeper comprehension.

Creative Ways to Use This Symphony of Stories Activity

This resource can be used in a variety of engaging ways:

• Book Week Literacy Centres – Add the activity to a reading station where students independently analyse characters and justify their choices. 
• Class Character Orchestra – Have students compare their answers and create a classroom orchestra made up of different characters and instruments.
• Extension Reading Response – After reading another book, challenge students to match new characters with orchestral instruments using the same activity format.

Download This Character Orchestra Match Up Activity

This resource is available as a ready-to-download PDF or editable Google Slides presentation. Simply print and use as part of your Book Week celebrations, literacy lessons or reading comprehension activities. Please note: you will be prompted to make your own copy before downloading the Google Slides version.

This resource was created by Lindsey Phillips, a TeachStarter collaborator.

More Symphony of Stories Resources

Explore more Book Week 2026 activities inspired by the CBCA theme, Symphony of Stories.

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