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Video transcript
Part 1
Jo Darbyshire
Kindergarten teacher
And in my story box I have …
Children
Your story hat.
Jo
My story hat. What does my story hat mean?
Child
A story without a book.
Jo
We’re going to have a story without a book.
Jo
The way that we plan the program, we look at the children’s play and we try and build on that as most early childhood teachers do. But we also introduce things that we know that the children will enjoy. So with that particular story, they hadn’t been playing the billygoats. There had been no mention of that story. That was my choice as a teacher to introduce that story to the children. Because I know that it’s got seriation, it’s got a logical progression, it’s got movements that the children can be engaged in. It’s got rhythm and repetition and things. So it’s a good one for their oral language and their storytelling and their understanding of that genre. It will include communication. They’ll need to collaborate … So it goes into when we’re looking at how we build the program into other areas, all those learning developmental areas.
Jo
So one day the billygoats were eating and eating and eating and eating and eating because that’s what billygoats do. They like to eat a lot. And they ate so much that there was no grass left on their side of the river. All they had left was dirt. They could see over the other side to this beautiful, delicious grass and they thought, wouldn’t it be nice if we could have the grass on that side of the river. But how will we get across?
He bravely went up onto the bridge and his feet make a bit of a louder noise because he’s heavier. Trip, trap, trip, trap, trip, trap, trip, trap, went his feet across the bridge. And the troll heard that noise, and he’s waiting for this billygoat for his dinner. He jumped up and he said, ‘Who’s that tripping over my bridge?’
‘It’s me, the middle-sized billygoat gruff. I’m just going over to eat the grass on the other side of the river.’ I’m hungry and I’m going to eat you up.’
‘Oh please Mr Troll, please don’t eat me up. I’m only a middle-size billygoat gruff. I’m not very big and I don’t think I’d be very tasty. You could wait ‘til my brother comes along. He’s much bigger than I am.’
‘Very well then. I’ll wait for the biggest billygoat gruff because I’m very, very hungry.’
The middle-size billygoat gruff really quickly went trip, trap, trip, trap, trip, trap, trip, trap over to join his brother on the other side.
Part 2
Jo
We used lots of different ideas to build on the Three Billy Goats Gruff and to extend it into the program. Some children also played it outside on the climbing frame. So they used the boards as a pretend bridge and we observed them playing the Three Billy Goats Gruff.
There were a couple of the children that also decided that they wanted to make a book of the Three Billy Goats Gruff. So they … we put together some paper and they did the drawings and we wrote down the words that they dictated to us.
Then a few of the children brought in their own book versions of the Three Billy Goats Gruff from home. So we read those books and shared those with them as well. One of them had quite a different ending so they really enjoyed that.
We popped those resources that I used when I told the story out for the children to access and to play with. I thought that they would have needed a fair bit of guidance from the educators around them. But actually, they took control of it very quickly and managed to negotiate the roles and tell the story and work it out themselves, which was really good. Because we could sit back then and observe what was happening.
Children
Who’s on my bridge?
Look, I am only the littlest one.
Your turn, Lolly. Okay.
Who’s on my bridge?
I’m only a middle-sized one. Wait for the big one. Eat him. He’s much juicer and fatter. So he goes down there. Woo!
- Last updated:
- 24 July 2025
