The Billy Goats Gruff
This week for our Beanstalk Arts classes we’ll be trip trapping over the bridge, and watching out for the troll! I love telling this story as we can work on piano, mezzo forte and fortissimo ‘trip traps’ for the different sized goats, and also there’s a lot of fun to be had in being the troll!
If you’d like to listen to our podcast version of this story, you can can find it here…
…or if you fancy a video version, here’s a catch up on our lockdown lives from early in 2021:
And here are a few ideas for activities and further listening inspired by this story, in case you fancy theming your play around it this week:
Play:
Can you build a bridge using bricks, lego or duplo and blue paper? Or maybe cushions, pillows and a blanket? Can you make your toys trip trap over the bridge, and maybe one can be a troll and jump out?
Arts and crafts:
Sticking on the bridge theme, can you make one out of boxes from your recycling pile?
There’s another lovely crafty ‘story retelling’ idea here, with free pictures of the goats and troll: http://aspoonfuloflearning.blogspot.com/2013/09/reading-writing-lots-of-freebies.html
Music:
I couldn’t find a better recording of this, but this song by Steve Grocott tells the story and it’s a great hit with pre-schoolers – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5U1aZw-jJ4
Not just music, but here is a BBC 15 minute ‘radio’ show aimed at 3-5 year olds themed on the Billy Goats, it’s lovely, maybe good for a listen for some quiet time https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/eyfs-listen-and-play-billy-goats-gruff/zr3yt39
Watching:
There are a LOT of animated and story reading versions of this story on youtube, I like this one… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vVs7im3RCU
And the internet was made for this stuff… so here are some cute baby goats! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL6Ws4i07is
Ooooh and this folky song/story version is just LOVELY, with some gorgeous fiddle playing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSST2cH_fH8
Here are some goats taking over an empty Welsh streets during lockdown (!) – it is quite brilliant if slightly eerie… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcDvM3PdVsc (1 minute 30)
Reading:
Storynory version here with text and audio recording: https://www.storynory.com/the-billy-goats-gruff/
Active:
In lockdown, we used this story as a prompt for some basic but very fun troll/goat chasing around the garden!
If you’re feeling a bit more prepared, here’s an educational stepping stone game… https://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/News/article/trip-trap