trip-trap, trip-trap

the three billy goats gruff: blotto trolls

 

This smoosh art project was a hit with both classes. Many of the children made an entire army of trolls. The process is the same for any smoosh art (aka blotto and/or  blobs), fold paper in half, work on one side, fold and smoosh. To create our trolls, the children added geometric features that were pre-cut and piled onto a tray. The paint was wet enough that all they had to do was select, arrange and push into the paint...no glue needed. Some of the children had specific wants for shapes and colors, others cut their own shapes. This is a great companion project for our week of The Three Billy Goats Gruff. As we worked on our trolls, we talked about symmetry and planning...too much paint oozes out of the edges, too little doesn't smoosh enough. The children really went to town and I wish I had more photos of their awesome trolls!

the three billy goats gruff: pet trolls

For our week of The Three Billy Goats Gruff, along with all the bridge building and storytelling, we got to making and painting trolls. This project may look familiar to you as it is one often used by teachers to promote fine motor skills and use up older play dough which is exactly why I decided to do it and it fit right in.

 

The children loved making trolls out of the dough and random scraps of feathers, toothpicks, and pipe cleaners. If you do this project, you can have your children help you prep materials ahead of time by working those scissors skills cutting pipe cleaners and/or straws. Set up the supplies in a muffin tin for a pretty presentation and make sure to use a paper plate underneath for easy transport to a safe place for drying. The plate will also catch any bits and bobs that fall off. If you have a kiddo who really loves glue, place a sheet of wax paper on top of the plate beforehand.

 

The glue was also very popular and was used not only to anchor on googly eyes but to add layers and layers and layers of more dough. They took a few days and the children were ecstatic to take home their pet trolls.

the three billy goats gruff: a playset, some play dough, and bridge building fun

 

I picked up this fantastic wood play set of The Three Billy Goats Gruff from etsy seller Clickity Clack  in anticipation of our week of the brothers Gruff. The children loved this set and I would often come across them reenacting the whole story from trip-trap to trip-trap.

 

 

After a dozen or so readings of the story, we got to bridge building complete with goats. The children worked at all levels of block play. Some Laying out their blocks to create a visual bridge across the water on our rug while others used long planks across shorter blocks to create their bridges. One child even used one of the goats to create her bridge. While building our bridges, I explained the difference between a bridge and a tower. We also worked on building a strong foundation for our advanced tower builders. Some of the vocabulary and terms I used were foundation, vertical, horizontal, and balance. The bridge building was a part of our math time and we spent more than thirty minutes building away.

 

 

Often, out goats would migrate over to the play dough table where the story would once again come to life. The children loved retelling and acting out the story in their play. It reminded me of how much I loved the story when I was a young child.