The children in Clee class (and indeed across the school!) love Julia Donaldson stories. At the beginning of each week, as an added extra to the daily Maths and Literacy activities I post, I will be putting a weeks worth of activities linked to her books. All of the animated versions of her stories can be found on the BBC iplayer by following the link below. This week we will look at ‘The Gruffalo’

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/group/p06vkmht

Here are some ideas you might like to try, linked to this story. I have set them out on a day by day basis, but it is completely up to you how and when you tackle them with your child.

Monday – Think about character descriptions. How has Julia Donaldson described the Gruffalo? What does he look like? What describing words (adjectives) have been used? Ask the children to draw a picture of the Gruffalo and write the words to describe him around it (big, brown, knobbly knees, purple spikes, black tongue etc.)

Tuesday – Gruffalo food! All through the story, the Gruffalo’s favourite foods are mentioned (owl ice cream, roasted fox etc!). Design and decorate a menu for a Gruffalo café, using the foods listed in the story.

Wednesday – Imagine you meet the Gruffalo. How would you feel? What would you say? Would you run away? Ask the children to write some simple sentences about this. Remind them to sound out the words carefully using their phonics. They can use their tricky words, full stops, capital letters and finger spaces! Remind them that ‘Gruffalo’ needs a capital letter as it is his name.

Thursday – Design and draw your own Gruffalo. Perhaps it could be the Gruffalo’s cousin or best friend? Can you use or write some words to describe your Gruffalo?

Friday – Rhyming words. Watch the story again – can you identify any rhyming words? Make a list of the rhyming words. Perhaps you could write one word and ask your child to write a word that rhymes with it? (wood/good, claws/jaws, rocks/fox, toes/nose, stream/cream, lake/snake, black/back, see/me, mouse/house)