I remember loving the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff when I was very young…and I still do! I made puppets of the Billy Goats Gruff out of paper plates with fiberfill for fleece and legs made out of cardboard tubes or clothespins. Stuart came up with an ingenious system for attaching the legs, and it works really well.
Last year I played the part of the Troll, wearing a really warty green mask that Stuart had made from a paper plate, but this year I wanted to use my puppet stage and I knew the warts couldn’t withstand passage through the curtain.
When Linda heard what story I was going to tell this week, she immediately exclaimed, “You should use your Wild Thing toy for the Troll!”
Ahhh, the perfect solution.
I covered my puppet stage with camouflage fabric and fake greenery, and then I placed one of our small tuffets on each side of the stage. One was lightly covered with a mossy green fabric, while the one on the opposite side was covered with lush green leaves. Each of the Billy Goats Gruff gazed longingly at the greener-on-the-other-side field across the river before deciding to cross the bridge.
It was a grand story.
Afterwards, the kids made billy goat masks and practiced capering and trip-trapping around the children’s library.
Maa-aaa-aaaaaaaa!
And the three Billy Goats Gruff lived happily ever after in the green field.
