The story is a fantastic tale and the sequence is easy to remember so that even very young children can delight in remembering what comes next. On to what really matters – are the new Gruffalo rooms at the Chessington Hotel worth staying at, and ultimately is it worth the extra cost? If you had to make up a fantastical creature to scare someone, or something away, what would it look like? The new Gruffalo rooms are the most expensive rooms at the hotel, but it’s well worth the extra expense and something I would strongly recommend for a special occasion. It’s a fun way to extend your Chessington theme park experience that your children will never forget, the girls have said it’s their favourite hotel and can’t wait to return!. Once all the paperwork was finalised, we received our bands for early access into the Chessington theme park, made our dining reservations and we were advised of the meet and greet times to come face to face with the Gruffalo himself in the hotel.

To accompany your reading take a look at this video of Julia Donaldson talking about writing The Gruffalo and singing The Gruffalo Song. COLLECT OTHER CHARACTERS - Bring the books and films to life by collecting all the other characters: The Mouse, Fox, Owl and Snake (The Gruffalo). The Witch, Dragon, Cat, Frog, Bird and Dog (Room On The Broom). Zog, Princess Pearl and Sir Gadabout (Zog and The Flying Doctors) It is interesting to explore the fact that the Gruffalo (big, powerful and strong) is still able to be frightened and even frightened of a small thing and that is ok. Even big brothers or sisters, Mummies and Daddies can be frightened sometimes and sharing that fear or talking about it with someone can help - perhaps if the Gruffalo had a friend to walk with then they could have discussed the fear of the mouse and the end of the story might have been very different.

With Christmas not too far away now, we are going to be looking at various things you might want to consider – here we look at The Gruffalo Interactive Soft Toy from WOW! Stuff. Squeeze The Gruffalo’s ear, hand, knees and feet to hear Mouse narrate different part of the Gruffalo story. Includes many of the iconic phrases and sounds from the Gruffalo animated movie. There are very few hotel rooms around the world that can literally immerse them into such a magical experience and made our visit to Chessington and the new the Gruffalo River Ride Adventure even more memorable. For our recent visit to Chessington to experience the new Gruffalo River Adventure Ride we wanted to make the trip extra special for the girls so we booked one of the brand new Gruffalo themed rooms.

The Julia Donaldson Collection features unique kids toys and gifts inspired by the Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler books and films that are authorised and licensed by Magic Light Pictures.In the adults section of the room we had a king size bed which was really comfortable with quality bed linens complete with woodland detail. The rooms had everything you needed for a relaxing stay . Each room had tea and coffee making facilities, air conditioning, fridge, a large wardrobe with a good amount of hangers and a good size desk. Along with the TV’s in the children’s area and bathroom there was also a wall mounted HDTV in the adults bedroom. Created by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, the most successful author/illustrator partnership in picture book publishing, The Gruffalo is a modern classic, and both mouse and monster have become stars of stage and screen as well as story-time favourites. The Gruffalo is one of the world’s best-loved monsters. Since it was first published in 1999, the award-winning story of his encounter with the little brown mouse in the deep dark wood has continued to delight children and adults the world over.

There was also complimentary car parking for all hotel guests, a swimming pool and nightly children’s interactive entertainment at the Rangers Club in the hotel with meet and greets with the Gruffalo, games, a mini disco and so much more.

Credits

My husband and I had the burger which was delicious and the girls had pasta and pizza. There was also a buffet restaurant in the adjacent Azteca hotel but this looked a little too hectic for us. When staying in a premium Gruffalo room it would be good to have the option to have breakfast at your leisure rather than having to book, but this is only a small criticism. You could use the story to talk about animals and habitats as the fox lives underground, the owl in the treetop and the snake in a log pile house. You could also use the story to talk about which animals are frightened, who they are frightened of and why. A detailed Year 1 / KS1 lesson planning document that centres around 'The Gruffalo' by the wonderful Julia Donaldson. It's a very detailed plan that uses the Talk4Writing teaching framework. It includes a variety of learning objectives including: