A Three Billy Goats Gruff Play Dough Kit for Kids

This post is contributed by Jennifer of Study at Home Mama.

Play Dough Fun Inspired by The Three Billy Goats Gruff!

Have you been following along with our Folk Tale Series? Right now, we are incorporating the Billy Goats Gruff into our play and learning, so I was inspired to put together a Three Billy Goats Gruff Play Dough Kit.

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A Three Billy Goats Gruff Play Dough Kit for Kids

This play dough kit is fun but also encourages learning, by encouraging children to practice their engineering skills in building bridges, use their memory of the stories to remember details about the troll, and their creative thinking and fine motor skills to build their own trolls.

This homemade play dough kit is a great option for quiet time or as a special rainy day treat.

Materials to Make Your Three Billy Goats Gruff Play Dough Kit:

container with lid for the kit
batch of green play dough
sticky tack
popsicle sticks
yarn
googly eyes
shark’s teeth, beans, or small rocks for the troll’s teeth
3 goat figurines

You can leave out the sticky tack if you’re not confident that your children will be able to handle that material. I presented it to help with assembling the bridge, but play dough or even glue would work in it’s place.

The yarn is versatile and can be used for the troll’s hair, to make the green grass on the other side of the bridge, or even for helping to construct the bridge.

I included shark’s teeth because our version of the story described the troll as having sharp, yellow teeth, but feel free to use rocks or beans if that’s more accessible to you.

I loved watching the kids engineer their bridges. It was a true scientific process, watching them come up with design ideas, and then creatively problem solve in order to make them work. They had to make adjustments in their plans in order to have a stable bridge for the goats to walk across, and they also had to really focus on being careful and precise in building their bridges. They could use the sticky tack, play dough, or string to help secure their structures.

Next, the children created their interpretations of “trolls.” Even though we had all heard the same description while reading the story, they all came up with a very unique take!

Finally, we used the goat figurines to reenact the story. The children remembered the sequence of events, and brought their own rewrites to the table! Apparently, getting eaten by a troll is not the worst fate imaginable for a poor little goat – they might be threatened to be kissed by a troll!

This homemade Three Billy Goats Gruff Play Dough Kit was a huge hit with the children, and we will definitely be making more themed play dough kits in the future!