Dennis Kendrick

Three Billy Goats Gruff is a story of three goats who want to eat greener grass on another hill. But to get to this hill, they have to cross a bridge that is guarded by a troll. The first billy goat, which is the smallest, makes the first attempt. The troll stops him and tells the goat that he will eat him, but the goat says wait for my brother who is much bigger. So, the troll lets the small goat pass. Then the medium size goat does the same thing as the smaller and the troll waits for the biggest goat. When the biggest goat comes across the bridge and the troll stops him, the big goat buts the troll off the bridge and all the goats are eating the nice green grass on the hill.

This story is one I liked as a child and I remember reading it in first grade and making puppets for a play. I think that I learned that even though you may be smaller than someone else, you are just as smart or smarter and the two goats that were not as big as their brother used their brains instead of their brawn to get over on the troll.

Extensions for this book would be reading the story as a play or making sock puppets and the students have to act out the play with them. This is also a good book to use when comparing small, medium, and large items. This book would also be good to use to have student read because of the predictable text.… (mer)