This month educator Aly brought in her special felt board stories. She introduced a new story that the toddlers grasped onto quickly and soon it became a new favourite being asked for each time Aly did stories! As we told the story, "The 3 Little Pigs" we talked about the pigs and what each of them used to build with. Giggles could be heard through out the room as Aly would dramatically knock on something near by and say "Little pigs, little pigs, let me in!" The toddlers would join in by wagging their fingers and saying "No, no, no, not by the hair on my chinny chin chin!" Then working together, we would blow as hard as we could until the houses came down.
The interest of the story has continued to grow and we decided that we should make our very own toddler size story! We reached out to one of our families who live on a farm and asked them to bring in a bale of hay for us. Bringing glue outside, we poured it onto our paper and got to work building our very own straw house! Everyone was so excited as we talked about the first little piggy that was going to live in it.
Later that day we asked the children "what did the second pig make his house out of?" "Sticks!" they responded. This is when we decided to reach out to families to see if they could collect some sticks over the weekend to create the second house. On Monday morning we had enough sticks to create the second piggy's home also using glue. Lastly, we needed to make a house out of bricks, so using sponges we pressed them into paint and onto the paper to create the 3rd house made of bricks.
During these experiences the children developed their imagination, and receptive/expressive language skills as they acted out and re-told the story. As well as our fine motor pincer grasp as we held onto the glue sticks and spread the glue out, added the hay, sticks and stamped our sponges. Be sure to take a look at our 3 Little Pigs bulletin board in our classroom and ask your child which house is their favourite!
