1,2,3 Storytelling
Look at the front cover together. Ask your child to tell you what they can see and what is happening. Take note of their questions / comments. Read the story to your child. Ask your child to tell you about the story.
Storytelling 1
Read the whole story. It is likely that your child will want to tell you what is happening and will talk about the pictures.
Storytelling 2
Read the story and ask your child about each page and the illustrations, for example, “How are the Billy Goats the same/different?”, “What is on the other side of the bridge?”, “What does the troll want to do to the Billy Goats?”, “What do you think will happen next?”
Storytelling 3
Ask your child to share the story with you. They tell you the story using the pictures on each page
Watch Emma read The Three Billy Goats Gruff here
Activities
Talk
Help your child to understand the meaning of all the action words in the story by acting them out, for example: trotted, roared, trembled, strode, leapt, grunted, chuckled.
Help your child to understand the meaning of the words ‘little’, ‘middle’ and ‘big’ by finding objects
around the house that they can order by size. Help them to think of their own words with the same
meaning, for example tiny, medium, huge.
Find and talk about the words in the story that describe the troll: greedy, horrible, rude.
Look at the picture of the troll – his hair, his nose, his teeth, his feet, his eyebrows. Help your child to use a full sentence, for example, ‘The troll has purple hair.’ If they are able to, help them to use ‘and’: The Troll has purple hair and hairy feet.
Other traditional tales to read and watch at home
The Little Red Hen
The Gingerbread Man
The Ugly Duckling
The Enormous Turnip
The Three Little Pigs
Jack and the Beanstalk
The Princess and the Pea
Stone Soup
Games
Little Goat’s Footsteps – play in a group
One child is the troll and stands facing the wall.
The others are the goats sneaking up. When the
troll’s back is turned they can move. When the
troll turns to look they have to freeze. Anyone
caught moving is out.
Role Play the Story
Act out the story – the adult tells the story and
pretends to be the troll. Your child pretends to be
the three Billy Goats Gruff.
Guess the Character
Take it turns to describe or act out a character for
the other person to guess.
Trick the Troll – play in a group
Explain that the Billy Goats need to steal a key from
the troll to get across the bridge. One child sits with their eyes closed with a bunch of keys in their lap. The others sit in a circle, when the adult taps them on the head they have to sneak up and steal the keys without the troll hearing and catching them.
Songs
The Troll Song
To the tune of Three Blind Mice
Big, bad, troll
Big, bad, troll
Under the bridge
Under the bridge
Three goats come trotting with Big Goat last
The Billy Goats want to eat the grass
But the troll doesn’t want to let them pass
He’s a big, bad troll!
The Billy Goats Gruff Rhyme
To the tune of Five Little Ducks
Wants some green grass for his tea
Out pops the troll: “You cannot pass!”
“Please can I just eat the grass?”
Said in Troll voice: “Oh, go on then!”
Middle Billy Goat, so hungry,
Wants some green grass for his tea
Out pops the troll: “You cannot pass!”
“Please can I just eat the grass?”
Said in Troll voice: “Oh go on then!”
Big Billy Goat, so hungry,
Wants some green grass for his tea.
Out pops the troll but with a great big shout,
Big Billy charges and knocks him out!
Said not sung: And the Three Billy Goats ate the
green grass.
The Three Billy Goats Gruff is written by Stephen Tucker and illustrated by Nick Sharratt. It is published by Macmillan Children’s Books.