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The Three Billy Goats Gruff - a story about goats, green grass and a troll


The Three Billy Goats Gruff is a traditional folk tale and this version is published by Ladybird Picture Books. The story is retold by Irene Yates and the illustrations are by Ailie Busby. It is a story about three billy goats who want to cross a bridge to get to the grass on the other side but a troll is lurking under the bridge. The story has rhyming words, short sentences and lovely, bright, detailed pictures.


Activities

  • Re-enact the story

  • Build a bridge (outdoors)

  • Goat assault course

  • Local farm visit

  • Questions for the farmer

  • G and T I-Spy

  • Try a goat related food

  • Goat cupcakes

  • Goat and troll masks

  • Make a goat

  • Small, medium and big treasure hunt

  • Small, medium and big discussion

  • Build a bridge (indoors)

Outdoor

The Three Billy Goats Gruff is set outside so your child/children could re-enact the story. They could build a big bridge and pretend to be a troll or they could build a small bridge and use one of their toys to be the troll. They could make the bridge using sticks and stones or whatever else they can find in the garden. They could also build a goat assault course with things to climb over, under and through. This could just be done with things around the house or in the garden. They could jump over sticks, climb through a blanket and crawl under a table or chair. You could time it and see how quickly they can do the whole course. Remember, they need to do the assault course on all fours if they are a goat or they can do it on two legs if they are the troll. If you want to get out and about you could visit a local farm and visit some real life goats. If your child is old enough you might want to get them to write a couple of questions down to ask the farmer when they meet the goats on their farm trip. If you can't visit a farm then you could look up a local farm and get your child to write a letter or email their questions. Another fun outdoor activity could be to play I-Spy and see how many things they can spot that begins with G for goat or T for troll (this game could be played inside too).


Food/Cooking

If your child/children haven't tried any goat products before then this could be the perfect time too. You could encourage them to try goats milk, goats cheese or make something that they are familiar with with goat milk or cheese. discuss with your child children how it is different to cows milk and why they think goats milk is less popular. You could also get them to try some goat meat if you wanted and they could help you prepare a tasty dish. For a sweet desert you could make goat cupcakes. If you could get hold of some little fairy cases this would be better as two normal sized fairy cakes could be a bit excessive for a child to eat (it wouldn't be a problem for me) or you could buy some plain mini cakes to save you a job. Cover one cake with chocolate icing and another cake with green icing and then build a bridge between the two. This could be done with chocolate fingers, a bit of twirl or candy sticks. If you wanted to you could bake some gingerbread goats or buy or make some mini gingerbread men as the troll. When you have finished it should look like a field with no grass on one side, a field with nice green grass on the other side and a bridge in between the two. Please share photos of your creations. I would love to see them.


Indoor

Your child/children could make goat and troll masks using paper plates, card, different coloured paper and pens. This could be a good time to introduce big, medium and small to younger children and they could take this into account when they make their masks. If your child/children don't want to make a mask then they could make a goat using a toilet/kitchen roll tube. Make a goat face using a disc of card and put this on one end and then put a tail on the other end made out of card or wool. They can then colour the tube or stick wool or string in strands on it as the body. You could either use lolly pop sticks as the legs or pegs make good legs too. For a more educational activity you could do a big, medium and small treasure hunt. Give your child/children a set amount of time and send them off to find as many small things as they can. Then when the timer is up put it on again and send them off to find as many medium things as they can and (you guessed it) send them off to find as many big things as they can. You could discuss the differences between all of the objects they found and which ones were the easiest to find and why. A final fun activity to go along with this book is bridge building. This can be as imaginative as you want. Your child/children could build a bridge using toys they already have such as bricks, Lego, Duplo etc. or they could use art and craft resources or things around the house. You could extend this activity by getting them to build a few different bridges and they can compare them and give the positives and negatives of each one. For older children this is a really good thinking activity and for younger children it helps them to learn how bridges work.



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