Playdough activities

email at anytime with queries, feedback, ideas or suggestions
buy a range of playdough resources
about playdough activities website
follow on Twitter for news and updates



 
Playdough recipes - edible and non-edible
an alphabetical list of playdough activities and ideas
playdough colour themed activity ideas for children's play and adults well-being
Playdough activity ideas for children and adults The Billy Goats Gruff build a playdough bridge!  Troll was having a bad day. He'd forgotten how to use his voice and all of his words had just up and disappeared, as did the bridge!  Find out if Troll was able to tell his friends why he was feeling so cross or if he ended up being mean to them..  This rules based game aims to promote turn taking, younger children's number work, fine motor development and to celebrate how dough can be used as part of storytelling. The game objective is to build a bridge across the river using rolled logs of playdough and then to fashion a patch of meadow green grass complete with daisies for the Billy Goat's lunch!  

Short on time? buy a digital copy of this resource on Etsy & print all the game pieces in one go.
 
Table top game - Billy Goats Gruff and Troll's bridge


 A simpler activity has Goat visiting his friend Troll who lives on green grass meadow. As Goat reaches the river's edge he finds the bridge is broken. Use a die to guide the number of playdough planks that need making per turm and see how many throws it takes to rebuild the bridge so Goat can cross without getting his hooves wet!

Billy Goat Gruff builds a playdough bridge to visit his friend Troll

 
The Billy Goats Gruff and Grumpy Troll table top game

Buy a printable copy of the Billy Goats Gruff an Troll on etsy

In addition to the printables, the photos above show:
playdough, blank 30mm wooden die, 70mm probability spinner, 12cm plant pot + 12cm saucer (dice shaker), 7cm pots & saucers (plank & dough holders), dough extruders, daisy embellishments.

Preparation

1. Make or buy brown and green playdough

2. Create your number selectors - dice & spinner
Make 1 bridge building die by numbering 4 of the 6 sides with plain numerals and the 5th & 6th with Troll faces
Make 1
probability spinner, or another die to control the number of planks handled by Grumpy Troll!

Plantpot & saucer dice shaker tub
Make a probability spinner or numbered dice to control your Troll and Goat gaming

3. Source extruders, daisy embellishments and a dice shaker - we used a plant pot and saucer, holding them together top & bottom to shake and then turning the die out into the tray.

Meadow patch reward - playdough extruder, green dough & daisy flowers
Plantpot & saucer dice shaker tub

4. Print and laminate the game pieces
A mound of brown playdough per player
(bridge planks)
1 x river sheet per player  + a numbered set of wooden planks (or lolly sticks)
1x goat per player  - fabric, plastic or paper
1x boulder per game
1x bridge building dice per game
1x Troll per game

1x Troll spinner or dice per game (only one of these options is needed)
 Dice shaker - wooden or a 12cm plantpot and saucer


Per player: 1x green meadow patch, green dough, extruder tool & daisy embellishments - fabric or resin  


Game board printables
 Billy goat gruff
 Troll - happy & grumpy 

 Boulder
 Meadow patches  

Billy goat gruff role play printable
Troll grumpay and happy picture printable
The Troll's boulder hiding place
Patches of Troll's green grass meadow
 River portrait 1 to 10
 Brige number labels 1 - 10

 Main grass meadow half 1
 Main grass meadow half 2
Bridge playdough mat 1 - 10 planks
Numbered bridge planks 1 - 10
1. half of Troll's green grass meadow
2. half of Troll's green grass meadow
 River landscape 1 - 20
 Bridge number labels 1 - 20

 Numberlines & dice face stickers
 Probability spinner disc
foot bridge playdough mat 1 - 20 planks
Numbered wood bridge planks 1 - 20
Number lines and dice faces
Probability spin disc and dice face stickers
Game play rules for the Billy Goats Gruff and Troll playdough bridge building game
 
Play
 Gameplay & rules sheet
  

This game offers an introduction to rule based gaming with a quick 10 plank session or a longer 20 plank game. Solitary activities can also be played using dice to guide children's number work.
TOP
SET UP
Place a sheet of green paper at the centre of your play and on top place (per player) 1 meadow patch, a mound of green dough, 1 extruder tool & some daisy embellishments.

Set up the boulder and sit Troll behind it along with the spinner or a Troll numbered dice.

Distribute a river sheet, brown dough, numbered plank labels/lolly sticks (optional) and a goat to each player (and a Troll token if wanted)

Take turns to roll the bridge building dice.
1 - 5: roll out a corresponding number of dough planks and position them over the blanked area of the river sheet. Use the number planks as labels and mark off the dough logs.

Rolling the Troll side:
means Troll gets to come out from behind his boulder and either leave or sabotage the bridge building efforts. Spin the spinner/roll the dice to find out how many planks Troll removes or leaves alone!

Troll tokens - game coins
 Print the Troll tokens, cut, glue together & laminate

Troll tokens
expand play by offering a token's owner the opportunity to sabotage or help another players bridge building efforts. At any point during the game, on the turn of the token's owner and in addition to their own bridge building throw they can play the Troll Token and assign its effect to a player. The spinner/Troll dice is then used to determine how many new planks can be built or existing planks taken away.

Once a bridge has been completed, trit-trot the Billy Goat across to collect a meadow patch where yummy green grass can be made and decorated with daisies for a tasty goat lunch,. This then enables the other players to continue with their game.

Personalising your game
 Probability spinner:
use instead of the Troll dice and adds variety to obtaining an outcome.
 Game piece holders: use instead of the fold out tabs found on the Goat, Troll & boulder pieces.

 Lolly sticks: number sets of wooden sticks instead of printing & laminating the bridge planks.

probability spinner for game choices
game piece holders to have your prinatables stay upright!
buy wooden lolly sticks on amazon.co.uk


Buy left and right handed children's safety scissors on amazon.co.uk
Buy extruder tools on Amazon.co.uk
Buy laminators and pouches on Amazon.co.uk
Buy large blank dice on amazon.co.uk
10cm plant pot and saucer - dice shaker tub!
Probability game spinners - make your own
Buy cabochon decorations on amazon.co.uk



Buy large daisy shaped paper punch on amazon.co.uk
Buy The Tale of Two Goats picture storybook on amazon.co.uk
Buy The Terrible Troublesome Troll picture storybook on amazon.co.uk
Buy The Three Billy Goats Gruff finger puppets and storybook set on amazon.co.uk




More playdough pages:

Conductive playdough - birthday cake candles
Baked bean counting!
Worm counting!
Panda playdough - black and white activities
Goats of various tactile materials

A tale of three Goats and a Grumpy Troll
....

 Purchase a printable copy of the three billy goats gruff on etsy  

Over in the dry straw field lived three Billy Goats Gruff who were standing under a big oak tree sheltering from the warmth of the summer sun. The three goats looked at each other and listened as their tummies began making big, medium and small grumbly rumbly noises.

"Hungry" they bleated and decided it was time to eat!
 
A little way along the lane was a meadow filled with the sweetest green grass and the whitest frilly flowers. This meadow belonged to their friend Troll.

"I'm going to have four daisies with my lunch today" bleated small Billy Goat Gruff.

"I'll have 10 with mine" said middle sized Billy Goat Gruff.

Big Billy Goat Gruff bleated
"and I'll have all that's left".

Off they went happy-as-could-be down the lane towards the meadow. But when they came to the rickety wooden bridge that they usually trip-trapped over, they stopped, and they stared, the wooden bridge had gone, vanished, been whisked away.
It had been there that morning, the goats had crossed it at breakfast time, so what could possibly have happened to it?

Now, Troll wasn't that far away and even though he could hear the goat's sad hungry bleats he sat crossly behind his grey rocky boulder and in the green meadow grass he frowned the grumpiest frown of all his time.
 
It was he that had taken the bridge away and he absolutely was not going to put it back, he didn't want the goats to visit his meadow ever again. 

The Billy Goats Gruff couldn't see where Troll was and they started to wonder if he knew the bridge was missing.

"We need to tell Troll what's happened" said small Billy Goat Gruff.

"We could use the old shed in our field and rebuild the bridge' said the middle Billy Goat Gruff and big agreed. Together they set off back to their straw field to collect the wood. When they returned each goat carefully laid a plank across the river and then went back for more.

Troll peeked out from behind the boulder to see what the goats were doing and when he saw the bridge being rebuilt his eyes opened wide and his nose snorted hot! He stomped out from his grumpy place and threw the new wooden planks into the river, watching gladly as they floated away.

Troll heard the goats making their way along the stony lane, he was still much too grumpy to talk to them so instead he stamped off back behind the boulder and sat down with a thump.

As the goats arrived they dropped their wood in shock! Where had the new planks gone? Feeling a little scared they started to think that maybe Troll had been vanished away with the bridge. "Troll, Troll TROLL" they called out, running up and down beside the river.

After a while Troll had heard enough, "GO AWAY" he shouted loudly leaping out from behind the boulder "Leave my meadow alone" The goats looked at Troll in surprise and asked 'why Troll, you're our friend and we were worried about you and the bridge'.

"You ate ALL my daisies, every single one of them" Troll gazed around at his daisy-less meadow,
"look, LOOK, there are none left". He shook his head so very sadly "and now I can't pick any for my Nana's birthday tomorrow".

The three Billy Goats Gruff hadn't realised Troll wanted any of the daisies in the meadow, they hadn't really noticed just how many they had eaten!


"
We're sorry Troll" they said quietly "Daisies don't grow in our field, do you think your Nana would like blue frilly flowers instead?"
 
Troll looked up and for the first time that day he smiled, a huge happy toothy smile, and nodded.
"Yes" he said, "Yes, I think she will like blue flowers very much".

The goats left, and as they returned from their field carrying a beautiful bunch of wild blue cornflowers Troll was putting the last plank of wood back in place on the bridge. Now they could all enjoy the green grass meadow together and once again share stories that they liked, this time it was about who liked daisies and cornflowers, poppies and buttercups, corncockles and forget-me-nots!

  
More goat themed picture books for young children and storyteller enthusiasts

The Tale of Two Goats The Terrible Troublesome Troll The Three Billy Goats Gruff

Hedgehog prickles  playdough collage activity
Twinkle Twinkle little stars playdough activity
Twiggy bird nest playdough activity page
Grey playdough cement for buidling construction site activities
Incy Wincy spider webs!
Hickory Dickory Dock playdough marble clock balancing activities
Clawsome crab playdough printables
Rainbow heart playdough activity printables
The world - land and sea, green and blue our planet Earth
Firework playdough recipe- celebrations
Unicorn manes

  Playdough Recipes
 
 Edible playdough recipes
 
 
 Not for eating  playdough recipes
     
 An alphabet of playdough

 
Aa - Bb - Cc - Dd - Ee - Ff - Gg - Hh - Ii - Jj - Kk
 

 Ll - Mm - Nn - Oo - Pp - Qq - Rr - Ss - Tt - Uu
 
 
 Vv - Ww - Xx - Yy - Zz   


 Seasonal playdough activities  
       
 Winter
   
 
Spring
 
 
Summer
 
 Autumn
 
 Playdough books  
 Colour themed playdough activities
 
 Mixed - metallic rainbow and duos
  
 Red playdough
 
 
Pink playdough
 
 Orange playdough
 
 Yellow playdough
 
 Green playdough
 
 Blue playdough
 
 Purple playdough
 
 Brown playdough
 
 Black playdough
 
 Grey playdough
 
 White playdough
 Home

 Contact  

 About this website  
   
 Buy playdough products
   
 In the playdough tool box  
 
 Playdough activities by age 

          
 Benefits of playdough  

 
Sensory playdough activities

Playdough textures

Copyright notice - designed, written and illustrated by Ruth Grimes