Den building is such fun for children. They love to play in dens. They may need help building the dens but they do love to join in and make it their own. My children often ask me to make dens for them. It is their little special place where they can relax and engage in some imaginative play. Sometimes I put up the pop-up tent for them and sometimes I use a blanket. When the weather is nice we often take den building out into the garden. It can be a great way to get kids playing outdoors.
I wanted to make a different kind of den so thought it would be good to build a den around a particular theme. My toddler has been obsessed with Peter Rabbit recently so it seemed the obvious choice to base it around that. Our den was Peter Rabbit's burrow.
First, we painted some pictures to use to decorate the burrow. This is D's artwork.
R had a go too.
D even persuaded me to get involved, I chose to use crayons instead of paint and D decided to try and copy what I had done.
Here are the pictures decorating the burrow.
R helped me to stick the pictures up!
We made the burrow in the corner of the living room and I threw a blanket over the arms of the sofa to create it. I placed some cushions on the floor for comfort.
I placed some objects in the burrow that are described in the 'Peter Rabbit' book. Onions, garlic and herbs. I thought it might be nice to use some real objects for the children to explore.
I also placed some kitchen pans and utensils as well as some play food in the burrow. The children had a great time cooking food for Peter and his family!
R is practicing his cutting skills on an onion!
D gave me some parsley in a bowl. She said it was lettuce and rabbits love to eat lettuce!
The children also put on their paper plate rabbit ears so they could really get into character! You can find the tutorial for these rabbit ears here.
I also put our collection of Beatrix Potter books in the burrow for the children to look at. We have the whole collection.
After the children had played for a while we had story time. I read their favourite Beatrix Potter books whilst they lounged cozily in the burrow. This was a great way to end their play session. Reading stories in total comfort was such a lovely way to relax and wind down just in time for lunch.
Den building has always been lots of fun, though I refer to them as Forts :oD
ReplyDeleteI think there are a few different names for them. It really is great fun :)
DeleteI loved making dens as a child and would have loved to have made themed dens x
ReplyDeleteI never made themed dens either but I'm gonna have to try some different themes soon as the kids loved it!
DeleteLooks like you had lots of fun! I love making dens with my little brother. x
ReplyDeleteThat's lovely, bet he loves it! :)
DeleteLittle man loves building dens, he usually reads a book and eat biscuits in the den. It is a lovely idea to build a Peter Rabbits burrow x
ReplyDeletewww.lilinhaangel.com
Reading in a den is so lovely and cosy. I love cosy reading spaces :)
DeleteI love den building and so do my kIds. It's a shame we don't do it enough.
ReplyDeleteI don't think we do it enough either. Definitely have to do it more often.
DeleteI'm pretty rubbish at den building! I've tried a fair few times, but they always collapse! Looks like you had fun! Thanks for linking up to the BinkyLinky
ReplyDelete