The Three Little Pigs

January Weeks 3-4

Last week we focused on The Three Little Pigs. First we read a classic version by Paul Galdone.

In this version, the first 2 pigs get eaten up. The wolf tries to trick the third pig a number of ways before finally scrambling down the chimney. He ends up being boiled and eaten up by that pig.

There are so many great spinoffs from this tale. We read a few of my favorites.

 

The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark by Ken Geist is hilarious! It's the classic tale retold and is a great way to compare characters and settings, while the plot remains the same. In the end, the poor shark's teeth fall out.

David Weisner's illustrations are amazing. The Three Pigs won a Caldecott- another fun topic to talk with the kids about. The story begins as the classic tale, until the first pig gets huffed and puffed right out of the story. The pigs go on to fold the pages into paper airplanes, visit other familiar stories, and eventually enter back into their own story, inviting a dragon to join them and scare the wolf away.

 

The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig by Eugune Trivizas is adorable.  The three fluffy, cuddly wolves can't seem to build a house that the big bad pig can't knock down. After three failed attempts, they decide to try something different. They build a house of flowers. As the big bad pig is huffing and puffing, he begins to smell the flowers and has a change of heart. He becomes friends with the wolves and they live happily ever after.

 

Finally, we read The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by Jon Scieska. The kids have a hard time grasping this alternate point of view. They still want to see the wolf as big and bad, especially after he ends up "accidentally" killing and eating the pigs. It gives them some food for thought, at least.

Three Pigs Big Book

After reading the traditional tale, we created our own big book. I split the kids into groups of 3 (varying ability levels), and had them illustrate a certain part of the story. Here were the groups:

1. Beginning: The mother waving goodbye to the three pigs.
2. Middle: The first pig's house of straw being blown down.
3. Middle: The second pig's house of sticks being blown down.
4. Middle: The third pig's house of bricks NOT being blown down.
5. End: The wolf coming down the chimney and the pig ready with a fire and a pot of water.

At first, a couple groups didn't understand that they were ONLY drawing one part of the story. They wanted to illustrate everything!

I asked them to add labels and write a sentence about what was happening in the picture.

When we were done, we sequenced the story, and I read it aloud. Then I laminated and bound the pages, and added it to our big book collection.

Storytelling Center

 

In our storytelling center this week, I added my wooden wolf & pigs that I found on Etsy. Love them!

 

I also added some bricks and sticks. I couldn't find anything to use for hay this year!

Sequencing the Story

 

This idea is from Mrs. Goff's PreK Tales. I made a template for the kids with the 3 houses, and had them tear strips of yellow paper for straw and brown paper for sticks. Then they cut rectangles out of red paper for bricks. Each child had a quarter page of each color- and that was plenty. You can print my template below.

Retelling with Props

 

 

 

Love these simple props from Fairy Dust Teaching. I just used white sentence strips and stapled on the ears. The only problem is the interchangeability between the kids. Head size varies considerably in my class! 

Acting out familiar stories is something I really need to work on. This was one of our first attempts, and I guided them through everything. I just had 1 student who really put his all into it. The rest of the kids were very shy. I'm hoping with more practice, they'll get more comfortable with the process.

I left the props and book in the reading center for them to use during playtime, but they really didn't know what to do independently. Basically, they'd put the hats on, run around chasing each other a little, and take them off. Hoping this improves with more practice as well!

Rhyming Practice

 

This one is from The Kinder Garden.  I set up the chart, and then did a think, pair, share to come up with as many rhyming words as possible! Great peer tutoring for struggling rhymers!

The Little Red Hen

January Weeks 1-2

Last week we started a study of fairy tales. This is the part of the year where we can really hone in on retelling skills, comparing texts, and understanding of story elements. Our first story was The Little Red Hen. Here are some of the activities we did.

First, we read a classic story of The Little Red Hen, and made a graph to show whether we would help the little red hen.

I love using stickies for graphs- it's so easy! I assumed everyone would say yes, but I learned I have a lot of lazy kids!

Next, we made a Little Red Hen -EN Word Family craft- the idea comes from Fairy Dust Teaching.
 

On each egg, we added an initial sound to make a word. Some examples I gave were hen, pen, and den. Most of them ended up being nonsense words, but that's okay too. It prompted a good discussion about what a vowel is, and why the words that started with vowels were so hard to read and sounded so funny! (like een, aen, oen).

Here are the templates I made for this project. Just click on each picture to enlarge it, and then drag it to your desktop to save it.

Next, we read The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza. One of my favorite books!

We made a "Somebody, Wanted, But, So" Story Map.

 

On Friday, we read Cook-a-Doodle-Doo, and it didn't seem like the kids were too into it. It was quite long and wordy. But we voted on our favorite version of the fairy tale and this one came close to winning! 

To wrap it up, we did an activity where the kids copied my step-by-step directions to drawing the little red hen. I found these directions at Activity Village.

 

Next is The Three Little Pigs!

 

Book List

Our Favorite Red Hen books:

The Little Red Hen by Paul Galdone

 

 

 

 The Little Red Hen by  Lucinda McQueen

 

 

 

The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza by Philemon Sturges

 

 

 

Cook-a-Doodle-Doo! by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummell

Pumpkins

October Weeks 3-4

Here's what we did the last few weeks of October!

Halloween Math

We measured and graphed our heights with jack-o-lanterns.

I found a jack-o-lantern on Google Images (similar here) and put it in a Word document to make this height chart. This was awesome counting practice, as we counted the pumpkins for every child. So we counted into the teens about 20 times.

Before we measured, each child guessed what their height would be. Then we recorded their actual heights. We also talked about most and fewest.

We covered these standards:
K.MD.2 Compare 2 Objects (Taller and Shorter)
K.MD.1 Describe Attributes (Height)

Pumpkin Shapes

We made jack-o-lanterns. Each child received a pumpkin template and a sheet of black paper with squares, rectangles, circles, and triangles. They chose which shapes to use, and could also draw and cut any other shape they chose.

When we were finished, we graphed the shapes we chose. There were more triangles used than expected so they didn't quite fit!

Here's the template I use for this.

Pumpkin Widths

We drew and cut paper pumpkins (no template here!) and measured the width with unifix cubes.  Then of course we graphed those measurements!

What's the Beginning Sound?

To throw in some phonics practice, we made a class book called, "Pumpkin, Pumpkin, what a Pumpkin!" using the first sound in each child's name. This book doesn't seem too interesting or exciting, but it becomes a well-worn favorite!

Making a Jack-O-Lantern

The local store donated a pumpkin to each Elementary class this year. Pumpkins cost about $30 here, so we are very thankful!

First, we took turns sawing off the top and removing the seeds.

We estimated the number of seeds in the pumpkin after we removed them.

Next, we glued the seeds to ten-frames, let them dry, and added them up.

We had 340 seeds! This was great practice for counting by 10's, and for seeing the situations in which being able to count by 10's might be useful!

Choosing our Pumpkin Face

Using the book Pumpkin Heads, the children formed teams of 3, chose the design they wished to make (or made up their own), and drew it onto a pumpkin template. We then numbered the designs and voted for our favorite.

Surprisingly, the children chose the design they genuinely liked the best, as opposed to just voting for their own team.

The winning team was allowed to draw and cut out the jack-o-lantern face.

Then the kids decided they wanted to paint it! The tempera eventually flaked off, making the pumpkin look a little creepy. But it was fun!

Go to this post to see how we celebrated Halloween.

Book List

These are our favorite pumpkin books!

A Day at the Pumpkin Patch by Megan Faulkner

Pumpkin Heads by Wendell Minor

Apples by Gail Gibbons

Pumpkin Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington

The Pumpkin Book by Gail Gibbons