The Gruffalo Spotters Trail and other fun half term ideas
With school half term approaching and the weather looking up, sometimes it is hard to think of fun half term activities to do with your kids to keep them entertained, rather than the repetitive trip to the local park, over and over again.
The Gruffalo Spotters Trail is an interactive hunt based around the popular children’s book ‘The Gruffalo’. The aim is to follow the interactive clues along the trail to find characters from the book. The clues lead to five different footprint markers that bring the characters to life through the app using augmented reality technology, making it a great day out for all the family.
Melissa from our merchandise department checked out to the new Gruffalo Spotters Trail at Delamere Forest recently with her two children Tilly, age 8, and Orla, age 4, and they both loved it. Read Melissa’s review of the Gruffalo Spotter Trail below:
“When we arrived at Delamere Forest, we collected our Gruffalo Pack from the coffee shop for £3. It contained all sorts of fun stuff, including stickers, activity and information sheets, a magnifying glass, ruler and a pencil. Although you don’t necessarily need this pack to do the actual trail, it is a fun addition for the children and is something to take away at the end of the day. We then downloaded the free Gruffalo Spotter app, which is available on the App Store, Google Play and Amazon, and off we went Gruffalo Spotting!
The kids found it really exciting as initially all we could see was a wooden post, but once we opened the app and held it over the marker, out popped a mouse, fox, snake or the Gruffalo! Each one has a 10 second video to watch. Tilly and Orla loved being able to take photos with the characters as the augmented reality makes the characters appear to blend into the forest around you.
In total, there are 5 characters to find in the forest on the short walk which takes around 45-60 minutes (at a toddler walking pace!) The particular route in Delamere Forest that we took was flat too, so would be fine for push chairs and bikes. In between finding the characters, the children enjoyed running around the forest and playing in dens in the Den Building area. At the end of the trail there is a HUGE wooden Gruffalo which they also enjoyed climbing on and having their photo taken with.
To make the most of our family day out, we took a picnic then we had an ice cream from the coffee shop before heading home with two very happy and exhausted little ladies.”
Where can you take part in the Gruffalo Spotters Trail?
In total, there are 26 Gruffalo Spotters Trails situated in various forests around the country. For more information and to find the nearest trail to you, visit https://www.forestry.gov.uk/gruffalo The Gruffalo Spotter Trail opened on Saturday 1st April and will be open until Autumn 2017.Other half term activity ideas
Stuck for other fun things to do with the kids over the half term? Why not try some of our suggestions:- Bake a cake
- Visit your local zoo
- Have a picnic
- Have your own sports day
- Go swimming
- Visit a museum
- Go to the beach
- Take a walk along the canal
- Visit a farm and feed the animals
