Teaching Heart Blog

If I had to list my top ten favorite Children’s Books, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs would be at the top of that list…  I just love everything about this book from the zanny text and the super graphics.  The Wolf does a great job of getting me to side with his point of view. 

As a teacher, this was one of my favorites to read to my class as well as The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales.  As a mom, I love seeing my kids faces and smiles when they hear “The True Story”

The author of this great book is Jon Scieszka.  Today marks Jon’s last day as “our great nation’s first National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.”  To celebrate his run…  I thought I would take a moment to share some resources I have used in my classrooms when reading The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. 

“Here is the “real” story of the three little pigs whose houses are huffed and puffed to smithereens… from the wolf’s perspective. This poor, much maligned wolf has gotten a bad rap. He just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, with a sneezy cold, innocently trying to borrow a cup of sugar to make his granny a cake. Is it his fault those ham dinners–rather, pigs–build such flimsy homes? Sheesh.”

Before Reading:

-Read a version of the Original Three Little Pigs.

-Have student retell the original version as you write the key elements to the story on chart paper.

-Explain that you will read another version of the story. The True Story of The Three Little Pigs.

-Discuss how this story is told by the wolf and the original is told by the pigs.

-Generate discussion on a time when you saw a situation differently than a friend did. Perhaps you could bring up something

that happened on the playground or in your classroom to get the ball rolling.

-Share with the students the story for today. Let them look at the front cover and let them predict what they think the wolf will say about the situation. Turn to the inside first page and have students also predict why he might be in jail. (The picture is of the wolf behind bars.)

After You Read:

-Brainstorm with your class what more they would like to know about A. Wolf. What questions would they like to ask him about what happened to the pigs. Have the students write a letter to A. Wolf.

-Ask students what other fairytales they know and how they would change if they were told from another point of view. How would Cinderella’s stepsisters tell her famous story? How would Snow White’s stepmother explain what happened to her? Have children write their own versions of famous fairy tales with a twist.

-What point of view do your students feel is correct – the pigs or the wolf’s point of view?

-Compare the two stories:

brainstorm some things that happened in the Three Little Pigs story that did not happen in the True Story

Writing Prompts:

1.Were the pigs good little pigs?

2.Was the wolf really a bad wolf? Could it have been that the pigs were jealous of him? What if he was really a nice guy after all!

3.Can you really believe a pig?

4.Where would that pig have gotten all of the bricks? Did he have a job? Really!

5.Could there have been a windstorm that blew the house down?

Mini Lesson on Adjectives:

This story is rich in descriptive words & could be used for a lesson on adjectives. Take three sentences from the book and place them in your pocket chart. Have students highlight the adjectives for you. Have students volunteer to circle the nouns the adjective describes.

After you complete this as a group, split the students into groups of three or four and have them find three more senteneces in the book that use adjectives.

Math

-Introduce students to skip-counting by three. Use counters (pig erasers) to demonstrate.

-Discuss ordinal numbers using The Three Little Pigs. (1st, 2nd, and 3rd)

-Compare the weight of straw, sticks, and bricks, use a balance scale to demonstrate.

Hop over to Teaching Heart for more linksto match this book!
http://www.teachingheart.net/truepigs.html

(Thanks Scieszka, for your work in children’s literature from a mom with a TEACHING HEART! )

Hop over to a Year of Reading to see more thanks in honor of author Jon! 

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