The Three Little Pigs
 

Introduction:
The following series of activities are designed to use variations of a familiar folk tale, The Three Little Pigs

Materials:
Read Aloud Books--Traditional retellings:

• The Three Little Pigs, by Paul Galdone (traditional)
• The Three Little Pigs, by Stephen Kellog (traditional)
• The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, by J. Scieszka  (satire)
• The Three Little Pigs and the Fox: An Appalachian Tale, by William Hooks 
• Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig,by E Trivizas and H Oxenbury 
• (satire) 
• The Three Little Javelinas by Susan Lowell  (Southwestern, a Reading 
• Rainbow book)
• Pig, Pigger Piggest, by Rick Walton (great for language arts lessons on the 
•  simple, comparative and superlative forms of adjectives)
• The Three Little Hawaiian Pigs and the Magic Shark by D M Laird  (Hawaian)
• Yo Hungry Wolf, A Nursery Rap, by David Vozar (rap version in paperback)
• The Fourth Little Pig By T Celsi  (features the sister of the Three Little 
• Pigs  who tries to persuade her brothers to overcome their fears and go 

Session 1: 
Read Aloud a Traditional Version of The Three Little Pigs

Choose a traditional version of The Three Little Pigs to read aloud to your children.  Review read aloud strategies to helpwith this.  If you do not have access to a copy of a traditional retelling of The Three Little Pigs, you could use this simple variation that I wrote. As you read the title and author and illustrator of the book, point out to the children the language "retold by" intead of written by.  Point out that stories like the Three Little Pigs are folk tales and that means they've been told many many times.  For more info, see What's a folk tale?  It's important to draw attention to this to begin setting the stage for children to eventual

The children to eventually write their own version of The Three Little Pigs. 

Ideas for activities:

After reading a traditional version of the Three Little Pigs, ask the children to tell what their favorite part of the story was.  As the children respond, the teacher writes their ideas on chart paper.  The teacher should encourage children to be descriptive as they retell their favorite parts.  Also, the teacher should ask the children to tell why they liked what they did.
 

When every child has had an opportunity to contribute an idea.  Pass out the reader response pages.  Each child will make a page for a class book that has at least a sentence describing their favorite part of the book and an illustration.  The teacher can put these pages together to form a class book.

Activity 2
Read Aloud The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by A. Wolf

This is a humorous retelling of the Three Little Pigs story from the perspective of the wolf.  Before reading the story  ask the children how they think it might be different from the version they've already read?  Why might it be different? 

After you read the story, see how the children respond.  Do they believe the wolf?  When I read this version to a group of first graders, they were very skeptical and thought the wolf was lying to try to save himself.  It will be interesting to see if this story brings the kids over to the Wolf's side, or if they remain convinced that he's just bad like everybody says. 

Depending on the response of the group, choose one or the following