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March 18, 2013

Gruffalo Puppet Kids Book Activity

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We are quite excited to learn more about Julia Donaldson, March’s Virtual Book Club for Kids author.  We own and love her book The Gruffalo and came up with a fun kids activity to go with it…homemade Gruffalo puppets!

Make Your Own Gruffalo Puppets from Coffee Cups and Crayons

In The Gruffalo, a little mouse uses his wit to outsmart the many animals in the forest who are trying to eat him.  My kids love rooting for the underdog while listening to the lyrical writing.  Even my oldest, who can easily read it herself, enjoys hearing it read by her father or me.  Donaldson has also written wonderfully descriptive text that the mouse uses to describe the Gruffalo.  These vivid descriptions became the instructions for our book project.

The Gruffalo Book Activity

The kids raided the craft closet for puppet making supplies and came up with brown paper bags, scrap paper, glue, scissors, markers and googly eyes.  They reread parts of the description they couldn’t remember and used the illustrations to guide them.

The Gruffalo Book Puppets

Here are their Gruffalos!  They were perfect to use to retell the story.

Gruffalo Book Activity for Kids

After they used the story descriptions to make Gruffalo puppets they decided to make friends for their Gruffalos.  They used their puppets to create sequels to the story and acted out what they thought would happen if the Gruffalo had friends, or in my daughter’s case what would happen if the Gruffalo had a girlfriend.

While making their puppets the big kids were busy learning about:

  1. Story structure
  2. Reading comprehension strategies
  3. Characterization
  4. Descriptive writing
  5. Adjectives
  6. Authors and illustrators

…and more!

All while creating with some of their favorite art supplies and using their imaginations.  Book extension activities are a great way to develop reading and pre-reading skills.  I can’t wait to check out the rest of the Julia Donaldson book posts that are linked up to the Virtual Book Club for Kids this month, there are going to be so many fun new books to discover!

What fun activities have you done with Julia Donaldson books? Please add your posts to the blog hop linky below.  There are a few rules for this blog hop that we ask you to follow, so make sure to read them:

  1. Link up only posts inspired by Julia Donaldson that share children’s book inspired crafts, activities, recipes, etc. Any other posts will be deleted.
  2. Visit other blog posts on the linky and comment on or share the ones you love!
  3. Add our Virtual Book Club button to your post if you’d like.
Here’s the button you can grab if you are participating!
VirtualBookClub

About Megan Sheakoski

Megan is the creator of Coffee Cups and Crayons, a blog full of simple fun and learning. She believes that kids’ activities don’t have to be complicated to be fun and that learning is better with play.

Rainbow Outdoor Games for Preschool
Chalkboard Easter Eggs

Comments

  1. Jane @ Mama Pea Pod says

    March 18, 2013 at 2:50 pm

    Oooh, those are great! Will have to try those, too!

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      March 18, 2013 at 8:40 pm

      Thanks Jane!!!

      Reply
  2. Carolyn @ Pleasantest Thing says

    March 18, 2013 at 7:16 pm

    i love these puppets, and how you used them to sneak in all that learning. Super cute!

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      March 18, 2013 at 8:41 pm

      Thanks Carolyn! We really loved the story!

      Reply
  3. Lorie says

    March 18, 2013 at 10:44 pm

    Those are so cute! We’re going to have to make some.

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      March 19, 2013 at 12:03 am

      They are so easy! My 3 year old’s cracks me up, she didn’t think they should have said the Gruffalo had orange eyes so she decided to change them to green. Oh to be 3 again!

      Reply
      • Lorie says

        March 19, 2013 at 2:17 pm

        I like a girl who knows what she wants. I’ve got one of those too. 🙂

        Reply
        • Megan Sheakoski says

          March 21, 2013 at 8:51 pm

          Ha!

          Reply
  4. Trisha @ Inspiration Laboratories says

    March 19, 2013 at 3:30 pm

    I love that they made friends to go along with the Gruffalos!

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      March 21, 2013 at 8:49 pm

      Me too!

      Reply
  5. Erica @What Do We Do All Day? says

    March 29, 2013 at 3:07 pm

    I love puppets of all kind, but the ones that go along with books are the best, of course! Thanks for sharing at The Children’s Bookshelf, Megan!

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      March 29, 2013 at 6:52 pm

      My kids love to make character puppets! And I adore that they love to act out and rewrite their favorite stories!

      Reply

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