There’s a great tradition of forest monsters in myths and fairy stories, from the big bad wolf in Little Red Riding Hood to today’s favourite, the Gruffalo. Now it’s time to create your own forest monster, just in time for Halloween.
Autumn is the best season for forest crafts, with so many materials at your disposal, from pine cones and fallen leaves to acorns, bracken and even some late flowers. If you are stuck for an activity this half term, get the kids out in the forest and have a “build a forest monster” competition. Mums and dads must enter too!
We’ve put together a few ideas to get you started and even included some of our own creations. When you have built your forest monsters, send them to us and we’ll include a gallery of the scariest monsters right here on Forestipedia.
Gather your monster materials
Here are some tips about what to gather from the forest. Once you get out there, of course, the children’s imaginations will take over and they will have ideas far more off the wall than anything we can come up with here.
• Sticks for arms, legs and bodies
• Twigs for hair, eyebrows, fingers and toes
• Ferns, bracken and leaves for cloths or fur
• Half opened sweet chestnuts for eyes – or as body fur – be careful, they are very prickly
• Pine cones, nuts and acorns for eyes, nose or body
• Pine needles or moss for hair
• Late flowers for decoration – even monsters should look their best
• Berries for eyes (and fake blood!)