Lesson 1

Summary
This lesson is an introduction to exploring Drama skills and introducing the idea of some of
the animal characters in the Gruffalo story. It focusses on exploring how animals might move
and sound on stage.

Materials & Resources

Speakers and device to play music. A large space to move around in (can push classroom
furniture to the sides). Optional hat/prop for the forest ranger role.

Lesson Layout
Warm Up Activity – 10 mins
Find Your Family
Ask the children to sit in a circle and as a group decide on a sound that an owl might make
and that a snake might make, once this is decided as the children to close their eyes. Explain
to them that if they are tapped on the head they will become an owl and if they are tapped
on the shoulder they will become a snake.
Once everyone has an animal ask the children to open their eyes and find a space in the
room. When you say ‘go’ the children must walk around the room making their animals
sound and find their family (get into a group with ONLY their animal family and can only use
their noise, no actions or speaking!). Count down from 30 and shout freeze. Double check
that everyone has found their fellow owls or snakes. You can repeat this a few times.
Now you can increase the challenge and add in some more animals such as chickens, cows,
pigs, sheep etc. It is best to pick animals that have a distinct sound.

Main Activity – 20 mins

Back in the circle discuss what kind of animals are found in the forest during the Gruffalo
story and in other stories they might know. Ask the pupils to pick one of these animals. They
must find a space in the room and create a frozen statue of their animal using their body.
They must think about how the animal moves and sounds. You might want to show them an
example. Try to be expressive with your face and your body, for the mouse you might curl up
very small, use your hands as ears and make your teeth stick out a little bit. The mouse might
squeak and scurry quickly.
Once the children have created their frozen picture, walk around the room and tap them on
the shoulder one by one. Pupils should make their animal noise and show us how that
animal might move. Once you have seen everyone’s animals, tell them that they are now
going to create a forest scene.

Tell the pupils that once you put on your special hat, you are going to become a forest ranger
walking through the woods and you will be looking for all of the animals. It is important to
make sure the pupils know that once you take off the hat again, you are the teacher. You can
practice this with them by putting the hat on and off and interacting with them for a short
moment to show them the difference.
Ask the children to listen to the music that they will be moving to first. They can close their
eyes and imagine themselves being in the forest. Ask them to think about how fast or slow
they might move, how would they react when they see other animals, would they be afraid
of the forest ranger?
Once the music has ended, the children will now have the opportunity to practice their
animal movements and meeting each other. Play the music once more again and you can go
round and help with different movements and interactions.
Remember demonstration is key in Drama and the children will follow your lead! Point out
lots of positives in the children’s movement and expressions, many will copy the positively
praised actions.

Now it is time to put on your ranger hat! Play the music for the final time and give the
children a little bit of time to move around before you enter the woods. Make sure your
actions are full of expression. You can pretend to be picking up litter, looking at a map,
interact with the animals that come up to you, feed them some treats, you might get
frightened by some of the scarier animals etc. Have lots of fun and follow the children’s lead
with the movement and interaction.

Once the music has finished, take off your ranger hat and explain that you are the teacher
again. Have the group sit in a circle again and speak about some of the animals that were in
the woods. Use this time to encourage peer feedback.
“I saw Matthew was crawling slowly and looking away to show me he was a bit scared of the
ranger, great job!”
“I noticed that Farida was making ears with her hands which made her look just like a
bunny.”

Cool Down Activity – 5 mins

Sleeping Animals
Explain to the children that is is now bed time for the animals in the woods. Put on a calming
piece of music in the background and dim the lights in the classroom if possible. They must
move around the room like one of the animals from todays lesson.
Guide them through this with your voice. Explain that the animal is now getting very
sleeping, they might be moving slowly, yawning and stretching. They must now find a place
to curl up and go to sleep. Explain that you are looking for the animal that is sleeping quietly
and you will tap them on the shoulder, once they have been tapped, they must go and find
another animal that is sleeping quietly and do the same. Once they have done this they can
come and sit in the circle or back at their desks (wherever you choose to end the lesson)

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES
Once you are finished with the Drama activities you might want to use some of the paper
activities on the next few pages to support this Drama lesson. You can include these as part
of the Drama lesson if you are in the hall or separate room, or you can do these back at desks
in the classroom.
 Name __________________ Date_________________

What did we see and hear in the forest today?

In Drama, the Forest Ranger saw and heard lots of different animals
when they were out for their walk. In the circle, can you draw the draw
some of the different animals that were in the forest and fill in the
information about them.
What is the name of the animal?
_________________________________

What sounds do they make?

_________________________________

How do they move?

____________________________________
____________________________________

What is the name of the animal?

_________________________________

What sounds do they make?

_________________________________

How do they move?

____________________________________
____________________________________

What is the name of the animal?

_________________________________

What sounds do they make?

_________________________________

How do they move?

____________________________________
____________________________________
 Lesson 2
Summary
In this lesson the children will begin to explore creating their own monster character in small
groups. They will also have the chance to start exploring this characters physicality by
bringing the character into the real world by creating a group picture of the monster.

Materials & Resources

Gruffalo story book. A large space to move around in (can push classroom furniture to the
sides). Large pieces of paper and pens/pencils for each group of children.

Lesson Layout
Warm Up Activity – 10 mins
Alien, Tiger, Cow
Have the children stand in a circle. On the count of three the children have the choice to be
one of three things, Alien, Tiger or Cow. Demonstrate and practice the actions a few times as
a group.
Aliens hold three fingers up to their foreheads and say ‘Beep Beep!’.
Tigers put their hands out like claws and say ‘Roar!’.
Cows make two horns on their head and say ‘Moo!’.
After you have counted to three, the children perform one of these actions and freeze,
whichever one of these things is the minority or majority (you can play either way) has to sit
down. Carry on until there are two winners. You can play this a few times.
Next play this again but this time everyone has to get the same one, with no elimination.
It will take a few goes but eventually it will happen organically!

Main Activity – 25 mins

Back in the circle have the children sit down and share some of the words and descriptions
used to describe the Gruffalo in the storybook. You can use the storybook pages to help you.
Now get some of the children to come up with other features a monster might have. Whilst
you are discussing this, you can encourage the children to demonstrate with their bodies and
voices what these monsters might look like. They can show us big scary teeth, long scaly tails,
very tall etc.

Split the children in to small groups of 2, 3 or 4 and let them find a space in the room. Tell
them that they are going to create their own monster that they might find in the woods.
They will have 5/10 minutes (depending on how much time you think they will need) to draw
and/or label their monster as a group.
If you have paper that is big enough, get them to draw around one group member on the
paper and add the monster features on top, but if you have smaller pieces of paper the
children can draw the monster they are creating. You can put on music in the background or
a timer to let the children know their deadline. Whilst they are drawing you can go around
each group and offer praise and encouragement. Ask the children lots of leading questions
about their monster that might get them thinking about the character they are creating such
as – “What does the monster like to eat?”, ”What does it’s house look like?”, “Do you think it
has ever met any humans before?”
Now that the children have drawn their monster you are going to ask them to create a frozen
picture of what their monster looks like. They can use their bodies in any way that they
would like. Encourage them to be creative! One person can be the main body, someone
could like on the floor and be a tail, someone could create big wings with their arms etc.
They must all be involved in creating this frozen picture of the monster with their bodies.
Give them a few minutes to decide on their picture and once everyone is done shout freeze.
You can walk around and view the pictures, pointing out the features you can see.
You can also get each group to present their picture to the rest of the class and ask the
audience to point out what they can see.

Cool Down Activity – 10 mins

Silent and Serious
Have everyone choose a partner. Instruct them to stand back to back. One the count of
three everyone must turn and face their partner and keep a silent and serious face while
looking at them. You walk around as the inspector and the first person to laugh in the
pair sits down. From the remaining people, have them pair up and repeat until there are a
final two. In this one if they are not smiling or laughing you can invite people up to try and
make them laugh.
Once they have done this they can come and sit in the circle or back at their desks (wherever
you choose to end the lesson)

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES
Once you are finished with the Drama activities you might want to use some of the paper
activities on the next few pages to support this Drama lesson. You can include these as part
of the Drama lesson if you are in the hall or separate room, or you can do these back at desks
in the classroom.
Names __________________ Date_________________

Creating our Monster!

In the box below, draw out your own monster. Remember to
make sure everyone in your group has a chance to add an idea!
Names __________________ Date_________________

Describing the Gruffalo

Once you have read the Gruffalo story, fill in the blank
box with the right words from the word bank, telling
us what the monster looks like.

1. He has terrible tusks and terrible ____________,

and terrible ____________ in his terrible jaws.

2. He has ____________ knees and turned out toes.

And a poisonous wart at the end of his
____________.

3. His eyes are ____________, his tongue is black. He

has purple prickles all over his ____________.

knobbly orange teeth

claws back nose
 Lesson 3
Summary
In this lesson the children will continue on with their monster creations from Lesson 2 and
create short scenes where the woodland animals meet this new monster.

Materials & Resources

A large space to move around in (can push classroom furniture to the sides). The monster
creations on paper from last lesson.

Lesson Layout
Warm Up Activity – 10 mins
A Monster Calls
Have the class make a circle out of chairs, with one chair in the middle. Make sure all the
chairs, including the middle one, have someone sitting on them. You can go in the middle
first to demonstrate. The person in the middle says: “the monster calls all those people who .
. . (think of something that will apply to most of the children, for example have blue eyes, are
wearing shoes with laces, have a bow in their hair, play football etc)”. The people who that
call applies to have to get up and move seats. The person who is last to take a new seat is
now in the middle. You cannot sit down in the same seat. Continue this until everyone has
had a go. Each time they must think of a new thing to call out.

Main Activity – 25 mins

Get the children into the groups they created their monster in, in the last lesson. Allow them
to have a few minutes to look over their drawing and speak about their monster with each
other. You are now going to ask the children to pick one person in the group to play the
monster and everyone else must pick a forest animal. (If your class struggle with this you can
pre-prepare slips of paper with animals and one with monster on for each group to pick
from).

Explain to the groups that they are going to show us the woodland animals walking through
the forest, when they suddenly find the monster! They monster must make a scary face at
the animals and the animals are all very frightened and run away!
Encourage the woodland animals to show us what animal they are through their movement,
like we practiced in lesson one. Encourage the monster to show us they are scary with their
voice and their face.

Give the groups some time to create their scenes, around ten minutes should do. These
don’t need to be long at all. Go around the room and encourage speaking between the
characters in the scenes, big facial expressions and remember to demonstrate to the children
and they will follow your lead. Remind them they need to practice their dramas a few times
so that they are ready to perform to the class.

Once you feel the groups are ready, create an audience facing the acting space. Explain to
the children that you are all going to watch the scenes.
Not every group has to go and if some are nervous you might want to only choose a few to
perform. You might also want to go over audience rules before you begin (we sit quietly and
watch our friends perform, we clap at the end of the performance, we only say nice things at
the end)

Once you have watched the performances and given positive comments, you are going to
play another game to help the children explore how they use their voices.
Hello Mr Monster
Have the class sit down and make an ‘audience’. Pick one person who will be the Monster.
They will sit on the ‘stage’ with their back to the audience and with their eyes closed. You will
secretly point to one of the audience members. They will have to tiptoe up to the front and
disguise their voice so they cant be recognised. They can use an accent, different pitch, try
and copy someone else's voice, it is always good if you demonstrate first.
They must say ‘Hello Mr or Misses Monster!’ then sit back down. You can then ask the
Monster to open their eyes and they will get three guesses as to who spoke. If they get it
right they can stay on the stage, but if they get it wrong, the speaker takes their place. (You
can also swap every turn if your class is bigger).

Cool Down Activity – 10 mins

The Numbers Game
You will count up to however many people are playing your game. Have your class sit in a
circle and explain they must count to the chosen number. You can start off small and make it
10, but work up to the number of people in the group. But they can only say ONE number. If
you say a number at the same time as another person, you must start again from one. They
cannot communicate with each other. You can make this trickier by getting them to close
their eyes or lie on their backs.

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES
Once you are finished with the Drama activities you might want to use some of the paper
activities on the next few pages to support this Drama lesson. You can include these as part
of the Drama lesson if you are in the hall or separate room, or you can do these back at desks
in the classroom.
Names __________________ Date_________________

Monsters in the forest

In Drama, the woodland animals met a scary monster! Draw the
moment the animals saw the monster below and write a
sentence to describe what is happening in your scene.

____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
 Lesson 4
Summary
In this lesson the children will experience hot seating and teacher in role when they have the
chance to interview the Gruffalo. They will also create a whole class movement piece.

Materials & Resources

A large space to move around in (can push classroom furniture to the sides). Speakers and
device to play music. Hat/costume piece for teacher in role as the Gruffalo.

Lesson Layout
Warm Up Activity – 10 mins
Two Headed Monster Dance
Have the students pair up with someone else. Tell the pairs to stand back to back and hook
up their arms. Play some music that’s easy to dance to. The pairs must dance like they are a
two headed monster but can’t disconnect. It can be as silly as they like. After a few laughs,
tell them to find another pair to lock arms with and become a four headed monster. Then
have an eight headed monster dance, then the whole class lock together to create one big
monster. You can do it again with different pieces of music, one fast, one slow, one sad, one
happy and encourage the monsters to dance to suit the music.

Main Activity – 25 mins

Tell the children that the Gruffalo is coming to visit the class and that they can ask him some
questions. Ask the children to pair up with their shoulder partner and think of a question
they might want to ask the Gruffalo. Guide them with some example questions such as ‘How
does it feel when people run away from you?’ or ‘Who is your best friend?’. Give them a few
moments to do this.

You are going to be using a technique we call ‘teacher in role’. Using the same method as in
lesson one, explain to the children that once you put on your special hat/costume piece, you
are going to become the Gruffalo. It is important to make sure the pupils know that once you
take off the hat again, you are the teacher. Try to change your walk to show you are a bigger
monster and your voice to become deeper to model to the children you are being a different
character than your usual self.

You are going to walk in and sit on a seat in front of the pupils in the audience. If you have
another adult in the room they can pick the children who will be asking the questions, but if
not you in character as the Gruffalo can speak to the children and ask them to put their hand
up to answer questions. Although you are in character, you can take off your costume/hat if
you need to speak to any children as the teacher.

In the end the children should end up with the information that the Gruffalo isn’t scary after
all, but he is quite lonely as everyone seems to run away from him! Once you have answered
their questions walk off the stage and take your costume piece off. Come back to reintroduce
yourself as the teacher again.
Gather the children in a circle and have a quick discussion about meeting the Gruffalo and
what they learned in their questioning. Explain to them that soon all of the woodland
animals will be having a big party to celebrate Spring arriving in the forest. There will be lots
of food, games and dancing. In the discussion, try to lead them towards inviting the Gruffalo
to the party. Once they have come to this conclusion, explain that the woodland animals
must set up the forest clearing for this party.

Split the children into small groups of 3 or 4. Ask them to pick a woodland animal to be. Now
each group must decide on one activity to act out when they are setting up the party. You
can pre-prepare suggestions that they can draw out of a hat or you can let them come up
with their own. These might be, decorating the clearing with party streamers, baking a cake,
cleaning the area of all the leaves, wrapping gifts etc.
Once each group has decided on the animal and the activity, put on a piece of music and ask
them as a group to act out their activity without speaking. Give them a few minutes to
practice this a few times. Next you are going to join each piece together to create one class
movement piece. You might want to get them to create an audience and call each group up
one by one, or have several groups on stage at the same time. This will be dependent on
how confident your class are but ideally the end goal is that each group has performed
during the song.
Once you have finished tell the class that the party is all set up now and you will be excited
to invite the Gruffalo along in your next Drama lesson!

Cool Down Activity – 10 mins

Follow the Leader
Have everyone stand in a circle. Send one person outside the room. Pick someone to be the
‘leader’. They must do some simple actions and the rest of the class must follow as
accurately as possible in order for it to look like everyone is doing the action at the same
time. Allow the detective to come back in. They are allowed three guesses as to who the
leader is. The old leader then becomes the detective and you can pick a new leader. The
children get better at this as it goes on and you can emphasise that slow easy movements
are better.

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES
Once you are finished with the Drama activities you might want to use some of the paper
activities on the next few pages to support this Drama lesson. You can include these as part
of the Drama lesson if you are in the hall or separate room, or you can do these back at desks
in the classroom.
 Names __________________ Date_________________

Inviting the Gruffalo to the party

In Drama, the woodland animals decided to invite the Gruffalo to
their Spring party. It is your job now to create an invitation to
send to the Gruffalo.
Your initiation must include
- The time of the party
- The date of the party
- The location of the party
- Some of the activities that will be happening at the party

You can decorate your invitation to make it look nice for the
Gruffalo! Practice your writing below and once you are ready, as
your teacher for a blank piece of paper to do your neat copy of
the initiation.
 Lesson 5
Summary
In this lesson the children will work on creating and devising their own drama based around
friendship and the Gruffalo coming to the Spring party. They will explore role play and enjoy
some Drama games.

Materials & Resources

A large space to move around in (can push classroom furniture to the sides). Speakers and
device to play music. Hat/costume piece for teacher in role as the Gruffalo.

Lesson Layout
Warm Up Activity – 10 mins
This week, explain to the children that the Gruffalo has received their invitations to the party
and is coming along. The animals have decided to get him some gifts to make him feel
welcome. Get the children into small groups. In their groups they must decide on what gift
they will be giving him. Ask them to come up with a mime of them showing off the gift/using
it. Go round each group and watch these mimes and try to guess what gift the group is giving
the Gruffalo.

Main Activity – 25 mins

Tell the children that you are going to play a game until the Gruffalo arrives at the party. It is
a version of musical corners. Name four corners after colours. Play some music and the
children dance around to it. When the music stops, they must find a corner. Close your eyes
and pick one or get a student to pick one each round. Whichever corner is it has to make a
picture as a group of something you choose (a car, a tree with fruit, a park). Go on like this
until everyone has had a turn at picking.

Now tell the children that the Gruffalo is going to arrive any moment now, they must have
their gifts ready for him in their groups. Give them a chance to practice how they will give
the Gruffalo their gift.

Explain to the children that once you put on your special hat/costume piece, you are going to
become the Gruffalo again. They should now be familiar with teacher in role. You are going
to arrive at the party and one by one the groups of animals are going to give him their gifts.
Pre-arrange the order you will visit the animals in. Have the groups sit around the room.
Remember although you are in character, you can take off your costume/hat if you need to
speak to any children as the teacher.

Put on your Gruffalo signifier and enter the party. Make your way around each group and
receive your gift, remember to change your voice and body to match the Gruffalo character.
You can use the gifts/try them on/eat them etc. Make a big show of this and encourage the
children to stay in character by asking them lots of questions in role and telling them about
the character of the Gruffalo. Once you have received the gifts, tell the animals that you also
love party games and would love to share your favourite one with them.
Tell them you are going to play a game called the Gruffalo’s footsteps. Explain that you will
stand at the front of the room and the animals have to sneak up behind you. They have to
start at the opposite side of the room in a line. When you are facing the wall the children
can move forward, they can only walk. Not run. When the Gruffalo turns around everyone
has to freeze, but if you see anyone moving or laughing they have to go back to the
beginning. If someone manages to tap you on the back, then they take the place at the front.
You can play this a few times.

Once you have finished the game, gather the children round in a circle and still in the
character of the Gruffalo, tell them you have had lots of fun at the party and it’s time for you
to go back home to bed as it is nearly night time. Say your goodbyes and take your Gruffalo
signifier off.

Cool Down Activity – 5 mins

Sausages!
Ask everyone to find a partner and face them. Ask them to label themselves A and B. A must
ask B questions and B must keep a straight face but only answer sausage. For example -
What is your pet? Sausages
What are you wearing on your feet? Sausages
What did your brush your teeth with this morning? Sausages
If your partner laughs they must swap over. The winner is the first one in the pair to get to 8
questions answered without laughing!

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES
Once you are finished with the Drama activities you might want to use some of the paper
activities on the next few pages to support this Drama lesson. You can include these as part
of the Drama lesson if you are in the hall or separate room, or you can do these back at desks
in the classroom.
Names __________________ Date_________________

Gruffalo comic strip

In Drama, the woodland animals and the Gruffalo had a lovely
Spring party. Create a comic strip showing the beginning, middle
and end of the party below.