Gruffalo Puppet Kids Book Activity

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!

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 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.

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

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!

Here are several of the bloggers that will be participating in this year’s Virtual Book Club for Kids:

Toddler Approved - Rainy Day Mum - Adventures in Reading with Kids - 3 Dinosaurs - Royal Baloo - The Educators’ Spin On It - Inspiration Laboratories - Pleasantest Thing - Edventures with Kids - Two Big Two Little - Playing With Words 365 - Kitchen Counter Chronicles - Outlaw Mom - Crafty Moms Share - No Twiddle Twaddle - The Good Long Road - Ready. Set. Read 2 Me - Reading Confetti - Mama Smiles - Juggling with Kids- Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas - Creekside Learning - Creative Family Fun - The Usual Mayhem - Teach Preschool - PlayDrMom - CraftoArt - Here Come the Girls - Being a Conscious Parent - Smiling like Sunshine - Crayon Freckles - Train Up a Child - Growing Book By Book - This Reading Mama - Smile Play Learn – Enchanted Homeschooling Mom – Coffee Cups and Crayons – Having Fun at Chelle’s House- Love, Play, Learn – Juggling With Kids – Motherhood on a Dime