Taking storytelling outside

We love children’s stories and I’ve written many times about the importance of reading and the benefits of reading to children, as well as them exploring books on their own.Β What is really lovely is when you can take the learning from these stories outsideΒ and give it even more context.

The best storiesΒ we have found for this are The Gruffalo, The Gruffalo’s Child and We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.

If we go on a forest walk for example, the children will often ask if we can go and hunt for The Gruffalo.

Last week we went exploring and we came across this log pile house…could this be the home of the big bad mouse? We had to peek inside to check.

The Gruffalo’s Child was feeling brave…and so were Woody and Barney!

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It is really lovely to relate the children’s favourite stories to the outdoors and think about story telling in a different way.

Think about the stories your children enjoy and how you could relate these to external things from their bedroom or the playroom. It can make walks a real adventure! Just like when the big kids have lessons outside at school, either taking part in Forest School, or just outside in the garden, the little one’s creativity can also thrive in the great outdoors. Outside spaces can create the perfect scene for stories to come to life. If, as an adult you have ever been to an open air theatre, you will know what I mean.

What are your favourite children’s books?

We are off to see The Gruffalo’s Child on the stage later in the year so no doubt this will bring the story to life even more, although, we will be inside the theatre…now in an outdoor, woodland setting, that would be really magical!

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26 comments

  1. I love reading any Julia Donaldson books to my son but The Gruffalo is one of my faves. We also read ‘Guess how much i love you every night’ Hope Woody and Barney had a good time, so cute and perfect accompaniments for a forest trip. Thanks for linking up at #Sharethejoy

  2. We do exactly the same. It’s great watching their imagination get going isn’t it. On our outing this week we couldn’t find the Gruffalo because he had gone for tea at his grandma and granddads house. The (white) lies we tell as parents hey! πŸ™‚ #sharethejoy

  3. It is so much fun to share your favourite books from when you were little – at the moment Jet is loving some of my old story books, such as ‘The giant Jam sandwich’ and ‘The elephant and the bad baby’.
    Good idea to take stories outside – I will try to do that πŸ™‚
    x Alice
    #sharethejoy

  4. We love stories in our house too and my eldest is always telling us stories on any walk we go on! At the moment, the favourite ones in our house are the Old Bear ones.

    But next time we go for a walk in the woods I think we’ll take the Gruffalo with us and have some fun recreating it!

  5. This is lovely! WB has so many books he loves so we have plenty of opportunities and surprisingly he is the one who often starts it off… So, for instance, a circus came to town and we used to talk about how the big top was the Circus McGurkus from If I Ran The Circus by Dr Seuss and once he randomly just decided he was Wall:E and I was Eva and we played out several scenes as we walked to Grandma’s house! We’ve never been looking for The Gruffalo though, even though we often visit the woods, so we must try that one! #sharethejoy

  6. We make up stories with our son when we’re out and about. Anything he sees is an inspiration to him (police cars racing through MKM and building a ramp to escape). His favourite book is Stick Man, we’re going to the Dalby Forest Stick Man trail soon!

  7. The log house is awesome! My son (8) is into The Lord of the Rings and I find that many times when we are outside on a nature walk he is wondering aloud if that patch of trees in the distance resembles Mirkwood forest or if this meadow looks like the shire. #SharewithMe

  8. I think so too. My kids love the Gruffalo and we are lucky to have a Gruffalo trail at our local park and they love going to it and having the book come alive. You can learn so much in nature I think they love it as much as I do. Thanks for linking up to Share With Me. #sharewithme

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