We love den building so when Building Blocks & Acorns put a call out for bloggers to take part in her Fort Building Challenge I knew we should sign up.

Den building can be quick, easy and fun. You can use materials you already have. You can theme them around a favourite tv show, character or book. Sometimes it’s just nice to help your child build somewhere for them to sit and have some quiet time.

Today we are sharing the fun we had building our Gruffalo cave.

Material needed to make a Gruffalo cave:
Blankets
Tent
Camouflage blanket

How to make a Gruffalo cave:

We used a play tent as the base for our Gruffalo cave but you could use a blanket over some chairs or whatever you have. We added a camouflage rug to remind us of the deep, dark wood. I also popped in our much-loved copy of The Gruffalo, our plush Gruffalo and a torch. I thought it looked very inviting and left it set up for when Little Sis got home from nursery.

She was so excited to see this invitation to play. She immediately got in and shut the tent flaps. She loved her Gruffalo cave! We read the book together and talked about our favourite characters. She was happy to sit and look through the book before stopping for some well deserved snacks. Then we had some Gruffalo craft time. We made Gruffalo stick puppets, found a mouse mask to colour and cut out, as well as a jumping jack Gruffalo’s Child  – all from the official Gruffalo website. We were able to decorate the walls of our Gruffalo cave with them!

We’ve had the play tent up for about a week now and both children have enjoyed playing in it. I love the fact it can be anything they want it to be.

 

We love The Gruffalo and have had fun with other Gruffalo themed activities. Here are some of our favourites:

Gruffalo Cupcakes

Gruffalo Bento

Gruffalo Crumble Cupcakes

Gruffalo story stones

15 Gruffalo activities

Don’t forget to hop on over and check the other forts as this is a month long blog hop, they range from under-the sea to space forts and everything in between. The full list can be found here.