2. Week 5 - Tuesday
Age 2–3
Playing turn-taking games will help your child to improve their social skills and develop conversation. Sit opposite one another on the floor. Take turns to roll a ball to one another. Each time you roll the ball, think of an animal from the story and say it out loud. Can you think of them all? Can you think of any more animals?
Age 3–4
Play a Memory game. Draw two pictures of each of the Gruffalo characters, i.e. 2 x mouse, 2 x fox, 2 x owl, 2 x snake, 2 x Gruffalo. Mix them all up and turn the pictures face down. Take turns at turning over a picture and see if you can find the matching one. If your two pictures don’t match, turn them back over and wait for your next turn. Keep watching and see if you can remember where they all are. If you turn over a matching pair, you get to keep them. The winner is the one who finds the most matching pairs.
Or you can put one of each character on a tray. Let your child have a good look at them. Talk about what you can see. Cover the tray with a cloth or towel and secretly take one away. Remove the cloth and ask your child which character is missing? If they can’t remember, try describing the character to your child and see if they can guess which one it is. For example “This animal has no legs and a long, thin body.”
Age 4–5
Make your own mini-book of The Gruffalo. Encourage your child to recall and sequence the story, for example, what happened first, next, then, after that, and finally. Let your child draw pictures in the mini-book and then use it to tell the story to a friend or someone in your family. Remember to promote good listening skills. Demonstrate how to sit quietly and listen carefully to their story.
You could also try making a story map.