The Boy In The Dress Activities

Using The Boy in the Dress Activities in a Classroom or Home Setting

I first started using these materials with a Year 4 class after reading David Walliams' book aloud during reading week. The activities are designed to support comprehension, creative writing, drama, and discussion around themes of identity, gender stereotypes, and confidence. They come from teaching resource websites, some from the publisher, and many from teacher-created repositories like TES and Twinkl. The concept is straightforward: you pair a set of prepared exercises with the book and run them over a series of lessons. The ones that actually work are the role-play and creative writing prompts. The multiple-choice comprehension worksheets tend to be the kind of thing kids zone out on by page two. Start with the discussion tasks. Get the kids talking about Dennis's experience of being told boys can't do dress-up or dance, then move into the writing exercises where they create their own scenarios. That sequence keeps engagement up for the full hour.

The Boy In The Dress Activities

Here is how I set this up when I have roughly eight to ten lessons to work with. I begin with a simple brainstorm: what does it mean to break a stereotype? Kids come up with stuff like "boys can cry" or "girls can be strong." Write it on the board. Then we read through the key chapters together, stopping at moments where Dennis faces opposition. I ask one or two targeted questions rather than reading a worksheet verbatim. It takes less prep and the kids actually listen. After the reading portion, I assign the creative writing task where students write from Dennis's perspective about a moment they had to stand up for themselves. Some of those pieces are genuinely good. One kid wrote about being picked on for liking ballet, which was uncomfortable but real. I let him keep it private if he wanted, which turned out fine since he shared it with only three classmates. The drama activities are where things can go sideways. I had a group of year 4s attempt the "fashion show" role-play and two kids refused to participate because they said it was "too silly." The workaround was simple: I let them be the stage managers and costume designers instead. They ended up engaging more than the kids who were performing. Not every activity needs to put everyone in the spotlight.

Download sources for these resources vary. TES Resource has a solid collection, though the quality is uneven and some are premium. Twinkl offers printable packs aligned to the book, many behind a subscription. The official HarperCollins teaching resources page sometimes has free material. I tend to mix downloaded worksheets with my own adapted questions because the published ones assume a reading level that not every class has. One thing beginners miss about running these activities: the discussion is where the actual learning happens, not the worksheets. If you spend most of your time handing out printed comprehension sheets and rush through the conversation parts, you are using the book wrong. The value of The Boy In The Dress Activities lies in what kids say to each other, not what they bubble in. Another counter-intuitive point is that the book works best with a mixed-ability group. Higher readers will pick up the satirical elements Walliams is going for. Lower readers still connect with Dennis's frustration at being judged. The activities bridge that gap if you let them. Don't separate the class into different task tiers unless someone truly cannot access the text. Most can, with support.

There are limitations worth being honest about. Some schools will find the gender themes too sensitive for their parent body, particularly the fashion show and self-expression components. I encountered this at a previous school where a parent complained that the dress-up activity was "pushing an agenda." The compromise was to frame it around "trying new things" and "not letting others define what you can do," which satisfied everyone without diluting the lesson. You need to know your community before you start. Another bottleneck is time. A proper run-through of the drama and writing components needs at least six to eight sessions to feel complete. If your curriculum only gives you three lessons, skip the extended role-play and focus on discussion plus one writing task. It is better to do two things well than six things poorly. The final thing to watch is the assembly performance version. Some schools adapt the book into a play for parents. The script adaptations are available through educational publishers, but they require casting choices that can accidentally highlight the same stereotypes the book tries to dismantle. I once saw a school cast only girls as the fashionable characters and only boys as the sports characters, which completely undermined the theme. Make sure your casting choices reflect the message you are trying to teach.