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Fairy tale unit studies are a great way to bring additional engagement to your literacy lessons! One of my favorite fairy tales to study in kindergarten is The Three Billy Goats Gruff. With clever goats and a grumpy troll, this story provides a solid foundation for a variety of literacy practice activities. In this post, I’m going to share some of my favorite literacy skills to practice with The Three Billy Goats Gruff unit for kindergarten.
There are many reasons why this fairy tale is such a great option for kindergarten literacy practice. It is an engaging story that keeps students listening from start to finish. When students get this excited about a story, it’s a good idea to maintain that interest with fun literacy practice activities!
The first literacy skill that students can practice during this unit is identifying story elements. I like to focus on characters, setting, and sequence with my young students. A great way to identify these story elements is through repeated readings of a Three Billy Goats Gruff read aloud.
You can focus on the characters during the first reading of the story. After reminding students what the word “character” means, the class can work together to add the characters to a story elements anchor chart. Once students have had a chance to discuss the characters, they can complete the character section of their own story elements flipbooks.
The next day, students can focus on the setting as they listen to the story for a second time. They will be excited to add the setting to the next page of their flipbooks! The third day will give students a chance to review and discuss sequencing as they hear the story for the third time. After completing the class anchor chart, students will repeat the story sequence in their flipbooks. They can glue down the goats to show which one went first, which went second, and which went third across the bridge.
By the end of the three days of repeated reading and story elements practice, students will have a fun flipbook! They’ll also have a better understanding of story characters, setting, and sequence.
It’s important for students to have a strong understanding of sequencing. When students can identify the first, second, and third things to happen in a story, they are learning skills that can be used in both verbal and written language.
The Three Billy Goat’s Gruff is the perfect story for practicing this skill since it has a very clear sequence. Students can easily identify the first, second, and third things to happen since there are three goats trying to get across the bridge.
After completing the story elements flipbook, students can complete this additional sequencing worksheet. This gives students another opportunity to review the story sequence, which will prepare them for the next reading comprehension activity.
Once students have experienced multiple readings of the story and have completed sequencing activities, they are ready to retell the story to someone else! Crafts can be great tools for retelling because students can use them to spark memories of the story elements. Retelling crafts are also helpful for the developing communication skills of young children. Students can act out the story with the craft to demonstrate their understanding of the story, adding a verbal retelling when they can. I also love using crafts in kindergarten because they provide additional fine motor practice for little hands.
The Three Billy Goats Gruff is the perfect story for a retelling craft! Students can build their own scenes to model the story, using green, blue, and brown construction paper. Students can use a strip of brown paper to create an arched bridge over the stream, connecting the two meadows. Then they can color and cut out the characters from the story. To get the characters to stand up for the retelling, students can simply fold the paper to make a small crease.
Once the characters and setting are ready, students can retell the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff with correct sequencing. Students love to use different voices for the three clever goats as each one tries to cross the bridge. They especially love the part when the grumpy troll falls off the bridge! This fun retelling activity provides great comprehension and oral language practice for young learners.
The final literacy activity in this fun fairy tale unit for kindergarten is a letter and sight word identification game! This game can be used for either letter or sight word recognition, depending on which skill you’d like your students to practice.
This game is easy to set up! You can put letter or word cards in a paper bag, along with a troll card. Students will take turns pulling a card from the bag. If the student can correctly identify the letter or word on the card, they can add the card to their bridge. Otherwise, they will return the card to the bag. If students draw the troll card, they have to clear their bridge and start over. The game continues until a student has successfully built a bridge for the goats to cross!
Your students will want to play this game again and again, which provides plenty of letter and sight word practice! You might even decide to add it to your centers rotation the following week! Overall, this game is a great way to end a fun week of literacy practice with The Three Billy Goats Gruff.
Everything you see above can be found in my printable unit for The Three Billy Goats Gruff. These hands-on, engaging activities will help your students practice a variety of literacy skills. You can find this resource in the A Spoonful of Learning shop or on Teachers Pay Teachers.
Be sure to add this pin to your favorite teaching board on Pinterest! You’ll be able to quickly find these literacy activities whenever you’re ready to download and print.
These alphabet books will have students dive deep into learning about each letter of the alphabet while eager to see what activity they get to complete next!
