The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson–Virtual Book Club for Kids

I’ve been joining in with the Virtual Book Club for Kids for 8 months now and I’ve found so many new-to-me authors who I now love – and Julia Donaldson is about to be another one!  I was not familiar with any of her books before this month.  Our local library, sadly, had just 3 titles!  We ended up going with The Gruffalo oh a whim – and I’m so glad we did.  It’s quickly become the one book we read every.single.night.  But I don’t mind reading this book over and over again because it’s catchy and cute!  I love the rhymes and the story line, and the boys think it’s quite funny.

And I didn’t realize the sensation behind The Gruffalo until I searched for a Gruffalo Crumble recipe!  I ended up spotting an entire Gruffalo birthday party at Mama Pea Pod and loved what they had done!  So we decided to use her Gruffalo Crumble recipe (delicious!!), and we also had Scrambled Snake (lime jello), Owl-ice cream, Roasted Fox (hot dogs), and Mouse Sandwiches (turkey). 

I threw a little Gruffalo lunch party for the boys and I, and we had quite a feast!  My favorite was easily the Gruffalo Crumble!  Royal preferred the Scrambled Snake (and now refers to all Jello as such!) and Baloo loved the Owl Ice-cream.

For our Virtual Book Club activity we decided to make our own Gruffalos with this Gruffalo Roll game!  I drew this up myself (can you tell? )

I also drew up this Gruffalo template to start off with…

We each took turns rolling and drawing our own Gruffalos.  Royal, Baloo, and I had a really great time laughing at the different options, drawing, and coloring. 

Baloo’s Elffalo

Royal ended up with a Girrot!

And my lovely Bugator!

You can download your own Gruffalo Roll game here!

I’ve included my template for The Gruffalo, but I highly encourage you to draw your own!  For those who really don’t think they can make a Gruffalo though, I thought I’d include mine.

After we finished our drawings, we sat down and watched the move, The Gruffalo, which is a really great addition to the book.  Much of it is narrated, which gives it more of a story feel.  Plus, their slight accents are so cute!

We were sent The Gruffalo movie and The Gruffalo Fun Pockets to review.  As I said, we loved the movie.  I’m not sure that I want to admit how many times we’ve watched it already! 

As for the fun pockets – big big hit. 

Royal has pretty much claimed the boards and stickers as his own, and had spent a lot of time every day putting the pieces on and having the animals run away from the Gruffalo.  He loves to act out the story!  I imagine these would also be great to take on the road!  It’s so compact, as it all fits in the little pocket, and it provides a lot of fun!

I’m happy to say that I have the opportunity to giveaway 1 copy of The Gruffalo book and The Gruffalo movie to one lucky reader!  Open to U.S. Residents only

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Also check out Crafty Moms Share for a chance to win the book The Gruffalo AND The Gruffalo's child!

If you’d like to participate in the Virtual Book Club, just follow these simple steps!

1. Pick your favorite Dr. Seuss book and share it with your children and/or class!  (Feel free to comment here with which book you’ve chosen!)
2.  Create an activity, craft, recipe, project etc!  Do it and take pictures!
3. Come back  and share it with us!  The blog hop will be live for 3 weeks so share anytime in those 3 weeks!