The Gruffalo: Word Rhyming Game Review

The Gruffalo is a story about a mouse who goes on an adventurous journey through the deep, dark woods and is confronted by Fox, Owl and Snake who all want to eat him.  To save himself, he makes up a story about an imaginary Gruffalo to scare them off.  It is a well-written book for children with rhyming text by Julia Donaldson and fantastic illustrations by Axel Scheffler bringing the story to life. This game is from University Games. It is suitable for ages 4 years old and upward with 2 to 4 players.

Inside this box contains two games:

1. Word Rhyming Game

• 24 rhyming cards
• 6 Mouse cards
• 2 Gruffalo cards

This game helps your little ones develop their reading skills as they make rhyming sequences in order to win the game. The objective of the game is to be the first player left with no cards by playing cards that follow a rhyming word sequence. Playing a mouse card is like a wild card. The next player can then swap the colour of the card. Playing the Gruffalo card allows that player to swap cards with another player.  This is quite simple to play by learning the rhyming words like Paw, Jaw, Claw, Cake, Lake, Snake etc. For those who are unable to read, they can follow the sequence of the colours too. As an additional game, this can also be used as a memory game. Shuffle the cards and place them down and start to match the same cards on the table.

2. Bonus Game: There’s no such thing as a Gruffalo!

• 4 Fox cards
• 4 Owl cards
• 4 Mouse cards
• 4 Snake cards
• 4 Squirrel cards
• 1 Gruffalo card

This game helps your child develop his/her early strategy, colour matching, sequencing and social skills. The objective of this game is to be the first to collect the whole set of Mouse, Fox, Owl, Snake and Squirrel card. The Gruffalo card is a wild card where it can be used to represent any character card of any colour.

Both of the games are very easy to play by young children. Although Ms C (4 years old) was not that keen as she does not like to play strategic games. Mr K will happily play it again and again with us. All the games are best played with at least three players as playing with two players can end the game very quickly. They are a simple strategic game for younger children to start and learning rhyming sequences, colouring matching and social skills.

All the cards are made from good quality glossy card and the words are nice and big for the children to read. The game comes in a very compact box that is easy to take out with you on a day trip etc. The RRP is around £4.99 which is good value as you can get so many games out of the box. Click here to read about our review on the book and Gruffalo live theatre show.

Disclosure: We received the sample for the purposes of writing this review, however, all thoughts and opinions remain our own.