The Billy Goats Gruff build a playdough bridge! Troll was having a bad day. He'd forgotten how
to use his voice and all of his words had just up and disappeared,
as did the bridge! Find out if Troll was able to tell his friends
why he was feeling so cross or if he ended up being mean to them..
This rules based game
aims to promote turn taking, younger children's number work, fine motor
development and to celebrate how dough can be used as part of storytelling.
The game objective is to build a bridge across the river
using rolled logs of playdough and then to fashion a patch of meadow green
grass complete with daisies for the Billy Goat's lunch!
Short on time? buy a digital
copy of this resource on Etsy & print all the game pieces in one
go.
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A simpler
activity has Goat visiting his friend Troll who lives on green grass
meadow. As Goat reaches the river's edge he finds the bridge is broken.
Use a die to guide the number of playdough planks that need making per
turm and see how many throws it takes to rebuild the bridge so Goat can
cross without getting his hooves wet!
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The Billy Goats Gruff and Grumpy Troll table top
game
Buy a printable copy of the Billy Goats Gruff an Troll
on etsy
In addition to the printables, the photos above show: playdough, blank 30mm wooden die, 70mm probability spinner, 12cm plant pot + 12cm
saucer (dice shaker), 7cm pots & saucers (plank & dough holders), dough extruders, daisy embellishments.
Preparation
1. Make
or buy brown and green playdough
2. Create your number selectors - dice & spinner
Make
1 bridge building die by numbering 4 of the 6 sides with plain
numerals and the 5th & 6th with Troll faces
Make 1 probability
spinner, or another
die to control the number of planks handled by Grumpy Troll!
3. Source extruders, daisy embellishments and
a dice shaker - we used a plant pot and saucer, holding them together
top & bottom to shake and then turning the die out into the tray.
4. Print and laminate the game
pieces
A mound of brown
playdough per player (bridge planks)
1 x river
sheet per player + a numbered set of wooden planks (or lolly sticks)
1x goat per player - fabric, plastic or paper
1x
boulder per game
1x
bridge building dice per game
1x Troll
per game
1x Troll
spinner
or dice per
game (only one of these options
is needed)
Dice shaker - wooden or a 12cm plantpot and saucer
Per player:
1x green meadow patch, green dough, extruder tool & daisy embellishments
- fabric or resin
Game board printables
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Play
Gameplay
& rules sheet
This
game offers an introduction to rule based gaming with a quick 10
plank session or a longer 20 plank game. Solitary activities can also
be played using dice to guide children's number work.
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TOP
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SET UP
Place a sheet of green paper at the centre of
your play and on top place (per player) 1 meadow patch, a mound of
green dough, 1 extruder tool & some daisy embellishments.
Set up the boulder and sit Troll behind it along
with the spinner or a Troll numbered dice.
Distribute a river sheet, brown dough, numbered
plank labels/lolly sticks (optional) and a goat to each player
(and a Troll token if wanted)
Take turns to roll the bridge building dice.
1 - 5: roll out
a corresponding number of dough planks and position them over
the blanked area of the river sheet. Use the number planks as labels
and mark off the dough logs.
Rolling the Troll side: means Troll gets to come
out from behind his boulder and either leave or sabotage the bridge
building efforts. Spin the spinner/roll the dice to find out how many
planks Troll removes or leaves alone!
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Print
the Troll tokens, cut, glue together & laminate
Troll tokens expand play by offering a token's owner the
opportunity to sabotage or help another players bridge building efforts.
At any point during the game, on the turn of the token's owner and in
addition to their own bridge building throw they can play the Troll Token
and assign its effect to a player. The spinner/Troll dice is then used to
determine how many new planks can be built or existing planks taken away.
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Once
a bridge has been completed, trit-trot the Billy Goat across to collect
a meadow patch where yummy green grass can be made and decorated with
daisies for a tasty goat lunch,. This then enables the other players to
continue with their game.
Personalising
your game
Probability spinner: use instead of the Troll
dice and adds variety to obtaining an outcome.
Game piece holders: use instead of the
fold out tabs found on the Goat, Troll & boulder pieces.
Lolly sticks: number sets of wooden sticks
instead of printing & laminating the bridge planks.
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A tale of three Goats and a Grumpy Troll ....
Purchase a printable copy of the three billy goats
gruff on etsy
Over in the dry straw field lived three
Billy Goats Gruff who were standing under a big oak tree sheltering from
the warmth of the summer sun. The three goats looked at each other and
listened as their tummies began making big, medium and small grumbly
rumbly noises.
"Hungry" they
bleated and decided it was time to eat!
A little way along the lane was a meadow
filled with the sweetest green grass and the whitest frilly
flowers. This meadow belonged to their friend Troll.
"I'm going
to have four daisies with my lunch today" bleated
small Billy Goat Gruff.
"I'll
have 10 with mine" said
middle sized Billy Goat Gruff.
Big Billy Goat Gruff bleated "and I'll
have all that's left".
Off they went happy-as-could-be down the lane towards the meadow.
But when they came to the rickety wooden bridge that they usually
trip-trapped over, they stopped, and they stared, the wooden bridge
had gone, vanished, been whisked away. It had
been there that morning, the goats had crossed it at breakfast time, so what
could possibly have happened to it?
Now, Troll wasn't that far away and even
though he could hear the goat's sad hungry bleats he sat crossly
behind his grey rocky boulder and in the green meadow grass he frowned
the grumpiest frown of all his time.
It was he that had taken the bridge away and he absolutely was
not going to put it back, he didn't want the goats to visit his
meadow ever again.
The Billy Goats Gruff couldn't see where
Troll was and they started to wonder if he knew the bridge was
missing.
"We need
to tell Troll what's happened" said
small Billy Goat Gruff.
"We could
use the old shed in our field and rebuild the bridge' said the
middle Billy Goat Gruff and big agreed. Together they set off back to
their straw field to collect the wood. When they returned each goat carefully
laid a plank across the river and then went back for more.
Troll peeked out from behind the boulder
to see what the goats were doing and when he saw the bridge
being rebuilt his eyes opened wide and his nose snorted hot! He
stomped out from his grumpy place and threw the new wooden planks
into the river, watching gladly as they floated away.
Troll heard the goats making their way along the stony lane, he
was still much too grumpy to talk to them so instead he stamped off back
behind the boulder and sat down with a thump.
As the goats arrived they dropped their
wood in shock! Where had the new planks gone? Feeling a little
scared they started to think that maybe Troll had been vanished away
with the bridge. "Troll, Troll TROLL" they called out, running up and down beside
the river.
After a while Troll had heard enough, "GO
AWAY" he shouted loudly leaping out from behind the boulder
"Leave my meadow alone" The goats looked at Troll in surprise and
asked 'why Troll, you're our friend and we were worried about you
and the bridge'.
"You ate ALL my
daisies, every single one of them" Troll gazed around at his
daisy-less meadow, "look,
LOOK, there are none left". He
shook his head so very sadly "and now
I can't pick any for my Nana's birthday tomorrow".
The three Billy Goats Gruff hadn't realised
Troll wanted any of the daisies in the meadow, they hadn't
really noticed just how many they had eaten!
"We're sorry Troll" they
said quietly "Daisies
don't grow in our field, do you think your Nana would like blue
frilly flowers instead?"
Troll looked up and for the first time that
day he smiled, a huge happy toothy smile, and nodded. "Yes" he said,
"Yes,
I think she will like blue flowers very much".
The goats left, and as they returned from their field
carrying a beautiful bunch of wild blue cornflowers Troll was
putting the last plank of wood back in place on the bridge. Now they
could all enjoy the green grass meadow together and once again share
stories that they liked, this time it was about who liked daisies and cornflowers,
poppies and buttercups, corncockles and forget-me-nots!
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