With baking, colouring and an adventure through the house, this activity is designed to be both enjoyable and educational, perfect for a fun weekend with the kids. They’ll learn where the different animals live and why, alongside the excitement of the Gruffalo’s footprints being in their own home! Simply download our activity sheets, get the little ones colouring and follow our trail instructions for oodles of fun!
Step-by-step instructions
1. To start with, use our recipe link to bake our Arla Big Milk Gruffalo cupcakes. Get the kids involved by having them stir the bowl or add ingredients! Once done, don’t let any of the little ones sneak a cupcake – we'll be using them later as our treasure trove for the trail!
2. Download our footprints and clues activity sheets and print out all the pages (make sure to print them one-sided!)
3. Cut out the animals and their clues from first activity sheet. Make sure to keep them hidden from the little one as a surprise for later!
4. Have the kids get creative by colouring in the Gruffalo footprints from the second activity sheet with different patterns and colours, in whatever way they like! Then take the footprints back from the little ones and cut them out with scissors.
5. Take the animal cut-outs and their clues and hide them around the house without letting the kids see. The first animal is Fox, who should be placed underneath the little one’s bed, to represent his “underground house”. The second will be Owl, who should be placed on a wooden shelf or desk, somewhere tall that the little one can still reach, so that Owl is up high in his “treetop house”. The third, which will be alongside the prize, will be Snake, who should be placed beneath the nearest hedge or tree, anywhere in the garden or outdoors where there’s lots of sticks for his “log pile house”. For outside clues, make sure you place something heavy on top, so they don’t fly away!
6. Once the animal clues are in place, create a path between the clues using the coloured-in footprints, as a ‘hint’ to help the little ones find them.
7. Once you’re ready to start the Big Gruffalo Adventure, gather the kids around you. Read the first quote from the clue cut-outs aloud to the kids, and allow them to try to find the first animal clue for themselves.
8. Once they locate Fox, let them read the clue or read it aloud to them, and again let them find the next clue for themselves. Continue to do this for each of the clues, until they find the prize of the cupcakes!
