Three Billy Goats Gruff

When I first planned my Three Billy Goats Gruff storytime, I was going to make the challenge a bridge building one. That makes sense, bridges are central to the story. Somewhere in the middle of planning, I switched things up and decided to make this a sink or float challenge. The children were asked to build boats for the goats so that they could avoid the troll's bridge altogether. 

Outline: 

Hello Song: Put Your Hands Up High 

Opening Rhyme: Hands Go Up 

Story: The Three Billy Goats Gruff adapted by Tom Roberts 

Song: Fairy Tale Song  
Tune: Jingle Bells 

Once upon a time  
In a land so far away  
A princess kissed a frog,  
Well that just made his day  

Far across the town  
Red Riding Hood took fright  
She found a wolf in Granny's bed  
When she told her good night!  

Oh!  
Fairy Tales! Fairy tales!  
Read them every day!  
Oh what fun it is to hear  
How Goldilocks got away!  

Fairy Tales! Fairy Tales!  
Full of joy and laughter  
Do you know how this one ends?  
Why it's happily ever after!  

Source: First Grade W.O.W.  

Coding Word: GOATS 

GOATS in the ASCII Binary Alphabet. I do not have a goat-shaped die cut, so I used actual 1s and 0s this week.

Story: The Three Billy Goats Fluff by Rachael Mortimer 

Song: The Goats on the Bridge
Tune: The Wheels on the Bus

The little goat on the bridge goes
Clippity clop, clippity clop, clippity clop
The little goat on the bridge goes
Clippity clop
Right above the troll

The middle goat ...trip, trap, trop
The big goat...stomp, stomp, stomp

Source: I came up with this one just before storytime. Feel free to use it. 

Craft/Activity: Sink or float boat to cross the river 

Final Story: The Three Cabritos by Eric A. Kimmel 

Goodbye Song 

How it actually went: 

This was a story that the children were already pretty familiar with, so they were very enthusiastic about telling me, and even acting out what was going to happen. The Tom Roberts adaptation is straightforward and nicely illustrated. Rachael Mortimer's Three Billy Goats Fluff is absolutely adorable! The children did something with that one that they've not done before. They started picking out which goat they felt represented them. It was a lot of fun, and totally reminded me of something I would have done as a child. 

Teeny, tiny goats (paper clip for scale). Let that be a lesson to all to double check dimensions when ordering online. 

I originally had a different song in mind for after the second story, but decided that I didn't feel like using it. Instead, I came up with my own as I was setting up the storytime room. The kids loved patting their knees, clapping, and stomping along with the song. 

Before building our boats, I did a quick sink or float exercise with the kids. I had the bowl of water in front of me and an assortment of items: feather, marble, plastic pirate coin, seashell, pompom, rubber ducky, etc. I held up each item and asked the kids to guess whether it would sink or float, and then set each item in either the "float" box or the "sink" box. After we made our predictions, we tested each item. For the most part, the kids were right on. There were just a couple of items that did not act as predicted. For example, the pom pom was predicted to float, but once in the water it soaked through and sank to the bottom. 

A pair of sisters work on wooden rafts based on my design. They added elements like foam for further stability.

Next we built boats. Once again, I provided some example ideas, but made sure the children knew that my samples had not been tested, so I did not know if they would float or hold any goats. 

For the sake of time, many of the children used tape to hold their boats together. Then they quickly learned that tape doesn't hold up very well when it's wet. So some of the children built new boats that they opted to just take home and not put in the water. A lot of the kids learned from the way their first boat performed, and chose to make another boat, to see if it would do better. It was great to see them apply what they learned. Everyone was able to build at least one boat that not only floated, but held all 25 goats. 

This wooden raft includes aluminum foil, foam, and a mast.

This wooden raft took a simpler approach.

This raft was aluminum foil wrapped over wooden craft sticks. Moments after this picture was taken, the girl who built it sunk it to the bottom. She was more interested in playing with the water, than floating goats. :)

I tried something new this week. I brought in some of my STEAM toys for the kids to play with if they had time between finishing their boat and the reading of our final story. Some of the kids were excited to try them, others preferred to keep building.

While one table was set up with boat building supplies, this one had STEAM toys, more versions of Three Billy Goats Gruff, and books on Sink or Float.

The kids were having so much fun playing with the water that I did have to take the bowl away and hide it in the storage closet, so that I could close out storytime with our final story and our goodbye song. The Three Cabritos was a hoot. I love the idea of the goats going up against the "goat sucker" himself, the Chupacabra. 

As always if you have any thoughts, questions, or concerns, leave me a note in the comments. I would love to hear from you!

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