The Three Billy Goats Gruff

The Three Billy Goats Gruff | Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe | Traditional Lit. | ages 3-7 |

One day as they are in the field, three billy goats decide to go to the other side of the bridge to eat the grass from the other side and under the bridge is a troll who wants to eat them. As the smallest of the goats crosses the bridge, the troll shows himself and backs down to eat the next goat who is bigger. When the second goat comes, the troll again retreats to eat the even bigger goat. Now the third, even bigger goat arrives and attacks the troll. The three goats successfully go to the hillside and eat until they get fat. 

This story collected by P.C Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe is appropriate for grade levels pre-k to first grade. Although the story doesn’t have an exciting plot, I would still use this book in my classroom because there are different things to learn from here. One way is to show it as an example on how story sequence is formed, tracing the beginning, middle, and end. Another literature lesson that could be introduced to students using this book is recognizing the types of characters in stories such as protagonist and antagonist. There’s also a lesson shown in this story about greed. If the troll hadn’t been greedy, he could’ve eaten the first two or at least not have been hurt if he had only shared the bridge. And for the younger audience, we can learn a simple mathematical term of size (big, medium, and small).