The Three Little Pigs

Our March theme at school is "Curtain Call."  We learned three fairy tales, and our culminating activity is a "Once Upon a Time" production for the parents.

One of the students' favorite stories was The Three Little Pigs.  To start the unit, we read this classic version by James Marshall.

I also told a version of the story on our flannel board.  That day during centers, the students visited the board and practiced retelling the story themselves.

Next, we made props so that we could act out the story ourselves.  I have 2 classes of students-- 3's and 4's.  The younger class made the straw house.  They cut strips of yellow paper with funky craft scissors (hello, fine motor practice!) and glued the strips onto a big science fair board.

The older kids made the other two houses.  For the stick house, they decided to glue popsicle sticks to the board.  We had to be careful not to glue any sticks along the fold.  They also wanted to add windows and a door, since this house is more complex than the straw house!  

For the brick house, the younger kids stamped brown rectangles onto big pieces of white paper.  Then the big kids cut the rectangles out and glued them to the house.

I like using the science fair boards because it is easy for the Big Bad Wolf to blow down the boards and then for us to set them up again for the next round.

 

At the end of the unit, we read "fractured" versions of the fairy tale.  This one-- The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark is our favorite.  It preserves the same rhyme and pattern as the original book.  "Little Fish, Little Fish, Let me come in."  "Not by the skin on our finny fin fin."  "Then I'll munch and I'll crunch and I'll smash your house in!"

We also read Jon Scieszka's The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs which is told by A. Wolf, from his own (innocent!) point of view.  The older class loved this story, but they definitely did not believe the wolf's version of the truth.  At the end, they were still on the pigs' side!

The students were off-the-wall excited today as we completed the "dress rehearsal".  I will share some pictures from the big performance (popcorn, programs and tickets, oh my!) later in the week.

Have fun playing and learning with your children.