Children naturally love the story of The Three Little Pigs! Each year, my students and I try to figure out different ways we can construct houses just as the Three Pigs did. I try to stick to the materials listed in the story as much as I can when selecting building materials so that our experience can be as authentic as possible.
As I set about finding building materials, it dawned on me that we should build our homes in an environment where we might find the Three Little Pigs!
I immediately settled on a forest thinking that it would be a good place for the Big Bad Wolf to be lurking as he hid from the pigs. To create the forest feeling in my classroom, I used some Extra Long Green Plastic Tablecloth Roll for the tree tops and created the tree trunks from a roll of brown Fadeless Art Paper. I kept the Green Plastic Tablecloth folded in half and cut tree-like bumps from the folded side out towards the open side. This created perfectly symmetrical tree tops. To create the tree trunks, I unrolled a 50-60 inch length of Fadeless Art Paper and folded it in half. Beginning on the open side of the paper, I made a cut at the corner and moved my scissors inward to create the look of a tree trunk. I then repeated the same cut on the folded side of the paper. I then secured the trunks to the tops with a little bit of duct tape and hung them from the ceiling tiles! I also added some fun "graffiti" to the trunks with some white chalk. In addition to the trees I created, I also added in some Pine Tree Jointed Cutouts to help my forest look real. Once I placed the Hay Bale Cardboard Stand-Ups in the front of our classroom, the room came to life!
Once the scene was set, I went to work putting out some props for my students to wear as they built their houses. I wrote each child's name on a Kids' Construction Hat with a permanent marker so they would be able to find which hat belonged to them. I also gave each student a Pig Nose to wear as they worked to build their houses. I also added in a little more fun when I dressed up as a pig in this cute Pig Costume to surprise my students!
I chose building materials that were as close to what we read about in our version of The Three Little Pigs as I could. We used the Block Play Set to represent bricks, some Natural Wood Branch Sticks to help us build stick houses and, Bamboo Paper Straws to help us represent straw. I divided my students up into groups and let them build houses out of each of the materials.
My students had a great time building their houses! I was impressed with how they tried different ways to build; at first they built their houses 3-dimensionally and then decided to build bigger houses in 2 dimensions. The materials were the perfect complement to our Three Little Pigs study! After we built our houses, we used our forest backdrop for a Reader's Theater production of the Three Little Pigs for our 4th grade book buddies and some family members!
