We absolutely love the story of The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson. It's been one of Ethan's favourite books since he was very young, with the rhyming language and fantastic illustrations it really draws children in. It's also a great opportunity to learn about the animals in the story and their homes in the deep dark woods, so we decided to go for an adventure in the woods to discover the animals natural habitats.
The first character that you meet in the story is the mouse, so when we got to the woods we looked around to see where we thought a mouse might live. Ethan said that a mouse is very small so he would have a small house. So we found a little nook in the bottom of a tree that would be perfect for a little mouse to live in. We talked about a mouse maybe bringing in some twigs and leaves that he could hide in so that bigger animals couldn't find him.
Next we looked for an underground house where a fox would live. We found this great hollowed out tree with a hole under it that a fox could easily hide in, ready to slink out and surprise a little mouse.
Finding a treetop house for an owl was the easiest for Ethan to do, he pointed up to a tall tree straight away and said that an owl would live there. So I asked him where the owl would live, if he would just sit on a branch or have something else. Ethan guessed a nest, so we talked about what the nest would be made of and how big it would have to be for such a large bird.
Next we looked for a log pile house that a snake would live in. We found a great collection of large logs alongside a bundle of small sticks and Ethan was convinced that real snakes lived in there and even went up for a closer look. It would have been the perfect place for a snake to hide!
Of course we also talked about the Gruffalo himself and where he would live. We looked far into the woods, past the end of the path and decided that the Gruffalo's cave would definitely be down that way, far far away from all of the other animals.
Ethan absolutely loved our adventure in the woods, searching for the Gruffalo and all of the other animals in the story and their homes. He talked about it for the rest of the day and has started asking about other animals homes as well. It was such a fun way to introduce the idea of animal habitats to him.
This post is part of the Learning Through Adventure series hosted by Bambini Travel, take a look at all of the other fun adventures in the series!
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1 comments
I absolutely love this! The Gruffalo is one of our favorite books. I love how you created an adventure out of it! Thanks so much for participating in the series.
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