Three Billy Goats Gruff

Folk Tales

by Henriette Barkow

Mantra Lingua The Three Billy Goats Gruff is designed in Cantonese and English to enhance communication with children in a variety of languages. Increase awareness of diverse cultures and world languages. Mantra Lingua programs help make learning fun for children while assisting teachers and parents to communicate with each other in non-native languages.

Genres: Childrens, German Literature

24 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2001

Reviews

[Steph Lomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Three Billy Goats Gruff is a classic tale that I vividly remember my teacher reading to my class at school. The story starts with three hungry billy goats all called Gruff searching for grass to eat. All the grass on their side of the steep hill has been eaten and they soon realise that the grass on the other side of the valley is greener. The only way to get to the other side is by crossing the bridge which connects the two fields. Although this seems like a simple task, the billy goats have never crossed the bridge before because a very mean and hungry troll lives under it.

The book explains the journey of the three billy goats and the problems they face along the way. A theme that arises during the story is size. The first billy goat makes his way across the bridge but before he reaches the other side, he is confronted by the troll who tells him that he is going to eat him. However, the little billy goat tells the troll to wait for the second billy goat as he is bigger. The troll lets him through as he knows the second billy goat will have more meat on him. Likewise, the second billy goat tells the troll to wait for the third billy goat. This theme of size can be developed into teaching children about volume, placing numbers in order of size, their own development, as well as many other opportunities.

The language in this book is ideal for children in Key Stage 1 and would be a good book to read as a class as there are many opportunities for participation. Repetition is used throughout the book and would encourage children to join in. This book could be used in a Drama lesson where a group of children could be the billy goats and another group could act as the troll and ask “Who’s that trip trapping on my bridge?” The author also cleverly creates suspense and drama and leaves questions unanswered for the children to speculate about in a class discussion. As the troll is pushed off the bridge into the water, the author questions whether the troll would ever be seen again.

Although the story has a happy ending for the three billy goats, the mean troll does not have such a happy ending. The troll was very selfish and acted like a bully as he did not like anyone crossing his bridge. Bullying is a sensitive issue and this book could be used to teach children about bullying and discuss ways in which situations can be resolved nicely.

[Taylor Meyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Summary: This story is about 3 bill goats gruff who need to defeat a troll who lived under a bridge to get to the green grass on the other side of the bridge.

Mentor writing trait: In this book, the author does a great job with providing each character with their own voice. Each character has their own style and a different impact on the story.

Classroom integration: This would be a great book to read to the class or to have them hear it on tape. With the three distinct characters this would be great to teach students how to use expression in their voice. This book also teaches kids to not be greedy. The troll in this story is greedy because he wanted to wait for the “biggest goat”. This would be a great lesson to teach kids.

Reading level: 2.4

[Pernille · Rating 4 out of 5]

My sons (2 & 4) loves it. I read it in English and their father in Arabic - and they are so excited. It has big colourful pictures which makes it entertaining even for the youngest. It's great for bilingual/multilingual families.

[زينب · Rating 2 out of 5]

الترجمة إلى العربية أرك من ركيكة هذا دون ذكر الأخطاء الكتابية العديدة
واأسفاه على بني يعرب قصة صغيرة للأطفال مكونة من بضعة صفحات وسطور ألا يستطيعون الإتقان فيها؟

[Ian McHugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simple tail of three Billy goats Gruff and the troll under the bridge. Eadie loves it when the troll gets whacked into the air by the biggest goat.

[Linda Musiba · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Three Billy Goats Gruff is a classic tale about three hungry billy goats all called Gruff searching for grass to eat. All the grass on their side of the steep hill has been eaten and they soon realise that the grass on the other side of the valley is greener. The only way to get to the other side is by crossing the bridge which connects the two fields. Although this seems like a simple task, the billy goats have never crossed the bridge before because a very mean and hungry troll lives under it.

The book explains the journey of the three billy goats and the problems they face along the way. A theme that arises during the story is size. As the goats individually walk across the bridge they meet the Troll. The Goats persuade the Troll not to eat them by saying how big the other goat is. This is quite good with EYFS and KS1 when dealing with Mathematics in relation to language of shape and size bigger than, smaller than, big, round etc).

The language in this book is ideal for children in Key Stage 1 and would be a good book to read as a class as there are many opportunities for participation. Repetition is used throughout the book and would encourage children to join in. This book could be used in a Drama lesson where a group of children could be the billy goats and another group could act as the troll and ask “Who’s that trip trapping on my bridge?” The author also cleverly creates suspense and drama and leaves questions unanswered for the children to speculate about in a class discussion. As the troll is pushed off the bridge into the water, the author questions whether the troll would ever be seen again.

The story is also rest to talk to children about bullying. Was the Troll a good or bad character? why? Would you like to be the Trolls friend Why? What could the Troll or the Goats have done differently?

[Laila]

Grade Level: K-3

The Three Billy Goats Gruff is about 3 goat brothers that want to cross over the river to eat green grass but they are scared to cross because of the troll. Eventually they get the courage to go over the bridge and the first and the second manage to trick the troll and the third beat him up and sent him far away. No the 3 goat brothers don't have to worry about the troll and can live happily ever after,

I enjoyed this book a lot. It reminded me of how sometimes you can deceive people but other time you have to stand up and fight for what you want. I also really liked how I can still remember this story all the way back to when I was little

One way in which you can use this book in the classroom is to use it as an activity to make a class play. You can have specific people act it out and be each of the characters and then the group that did it can put it on for the class. Another way you can use this book is you can use it as a read aloud to talk about different types of folklore.

[Fran Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great for reading aloud to children, allowing them to cower in terror at the grumpy troll, stamp their feet as the goats go 'trip trap' trip trap' across the bridge, and cheer and clap when the largest goat butts the baddie, sending him flying into the air. Oooops, spoiler alert! :-)

[Teri · Rating 5 out of 5]

My kids LOVE to read this story over and over!!! They love the Spanish word for troll, "OGRO" and the trip-trapping over the bridge is great in any language.

[Tanya Wadley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book. We enjoyed making a play of it when we were done (very fun with a mattress over a toybox for the bridge.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun story. My kids really enjoyed hearing both in German and in English.