As active learners, young children enjoy stories in a richer and more meaningful way when they can engage with the story on many levels: active play, re-telling, sensory play, pretend play, and more.
For any stories that include a tunnel or a cave, here is a one idea I’ve used again and again and the little ones love it. Place a couple rugs on the floor, then place a couple tables next to each other over the rugs and then drape a couple shawls, cloths, or sheets over the tables. I make sure to leave both ends open and leave gaps in-between, both for supervision purposes, ample light, and also for peep holes that they enjoy.
The little ones just love crawling through an indoor tunnel and the gaps for peep-holes are ones they enjoy making a side exit from or peeping inside and saying who they see or playing peek-a-boo.
Children also learn best when their play environment and materials encourage them to be creative. The last time I did this activity with a few little ones, after crawling in and out for a while, the children organized themselves into groups on either side of our ‘tunnel’ and experimented with rolling things back and forth to each other through our tunnel.