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Three Little Pigs Tuff Spot

11th May 2016      Sarah Burns      12 Comments

The children both love to read and have stories read to them and, much to my delight, they are both fans of traditional stories such as the three little pigs. Last week, whilst we were doing some of our farm and food based learning Mr D asked if we could learn about the three little pigs.

We did do some stuff on this a long time ago which I blogged about here so I dug out the various bits and pieces I had from that and came up with some other ideas.

Three little pigs house building tuff spot is a great activity for fine motor skills, STEM, engineering and maths - great fun!

First of all we played Three little pigs board game – this is superb game and the children loved it! We happened to have three pigs toys so we used those as our counters. I also laminated the bits and pieces for the houses and added these velcro dots to the pieces – I use these loads and they are great for activities such at this. The children had lots of fun and board games are a great way to embed counting skills. Miss E is beginning to show an interest in counting so I like these sorts of activities.

three little pigs games for pre schoolers

We then moved on to reading the story of the three little pigs. We have a few versions so we enjoyed those with lots of role playing for the wolf. I then dug out the story sequencing cards that I used last year with Mr D and listened as they both talked through the pictures together. I love these as an activity as the children seem to enjoy it but it also gives me a good idea of how much they have understood from the story and taken in.

Miss E enjoys these matching games and I have a couple of these printed and laminated up for them to use. Mr D is less interested in these now as they’re just too simple for him, so he set about doing a counting sheet instead. He is reluctant to try to write the numbers himself so he counts and asks me to write the numbers in for him. He finally seems to have cracked his counting and is pretty reliable in counting to ten and recognizing the numbers. He is also increasingly interested in larger numbers and adding numbers together.

Yesterday I set up a tuff spot activity for them to do. We built the three houses and then blew them down. I set this activity up and pretty much left them up to it.

I set up three areas, one with drinking straws and a strip of modelling clay (I used this from Baker Ross), another with craft sticks and modelling clay and a final area with with lego bricks. The children knew what to do straight away and it was interesting to watch them set to work. I gave Mr D his scissors and he was so thrilled to be able to cut the straws. He struggles a little with scissors and cutting but this was a great activity to give him a little confidence in this area. He set about cutting the straws up whilst Miss E pushed them into the clay. They asked for my help in putting the pig inside the house and adding a roof. We did this by resting a sheet of paper over the straws then resting straws on top of that.

three little pigs tuff spot house building

We then moved on to the stick house. This time they set up the modelling clay base themselves and stuck the sticks in. Mr D got bored of this one quickly but Miss E had great fun doing this house and asked me to add the roof (paper) again so she could lay the sticks across the top. It was interesting to watch them working together on this stick house.

three little pigs tuff spot house building

Finally they moved onto the brick house and it was interesting to see Mr D want to build the chimney (which of course the wolf falls down and into the boiling water!). We don’t yet have a base plate for the lego so they built the pieces up and positioned them around the pig to make a house. three little pigs tuff spot house buildingLego is great for them in terms of developing the skills in their hands and manipulating the pieces. Miss E struggles to separate the piece but she enjoyed pushing them together to create the house. The green brick at the front is the door, or so they tell me!

three little pigs tuff spot house building

The final part was to blow the houses down! We did this using my hair dryer. The children had great fun moving the toy wolf to each house and blowing it down with the hairdryer. They then spent ages rebuilding them and blowing them down themselves.

3pigs houses

This was such a quick and easy tuff spot to set up but they have had great fun playing with it and has so many wonderful elements to it, fine motor skills, STEM and engineering skills, manipulation, counting etc.

The resources I used for this included:

  • Tuff Spot & Stand
  • Modelling clay from Baker Ross
  • Three little pigs board game (printable)
  • Story sequencing cards (printable)
  • Word Mat (printable)
  • Matching game (printable)
  • Counting sheet (printable)


LarabeeUK

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About Sarah Burns

I am Sarah, home educating mum of three (born 2012, 2014 and 2016)

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Comments

  1. Amila Wickramarachchi says

    14th May 2016 at 01:02

    Seems this is a great activity keep little ones busy…

    Reply
  2. bloodcravephotography says

    15th May 2016 at 05:42

    This is such a great idea. We are a huge fan of building for education.

    Reply
  3. Clare's Little Tots (@ClaresTots) says

    16th May 2016 at 19:14

    Another fab tuff spot idea you’re so creative!!

    Reply
  4. Emma Edwards says

    19th May 2016 at 08:00

    Looks like they had so much fun. Great use of the Tuff Spot too to contain all the resources. I have pinned this to the #ToddlerFunFriday board.

    Reply
  5. Becky wilkinson says

    23rd May 2016 at 19:21

    I love this so much, love that you used a hair dryer to test them out!

    Reply
  6. Janice says

    21st August 2016 at 13:46

    What a fantastic idea! I also love the table they are building on…..where did you get it?

    Reply
    • Sarah Doyle says

      21st August 2016 at 21:10

      Hiya, I ordered it from Amazon – xx

      Reply
  7. rabbitideas says

    5th November 2017 at 21:35

    This is a great way to explore a fairy tale! Thank you for sharing. #bloggerpinparty

    Reply
  8. Jemma says

    13th November 2017 at 22:52

    What a lovely idea to learn about the book! #bloggerpinparty

    Reply
  9. The Queen of Collage says

    16th November 2017 at 15:01

    These are great activities and reminds me I must get a tuff spot. #bloggerpinparty

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Tuff Spot Tuesday - Nursery Rhyme - Tuff Spot Play says:
    24th May 2016 at 07:36

    […] Let Them Be Small shared their Three Little Pigs Tuff Spot. […]

    Reply
  2. Tuff Tray Guide & Great Ideas For Activities - Dynamic Dad says:
    18th April 2020 at 12:34

    […] 12. Build houses for the Three Little Pigs with Sarah. […]

    Reply

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Hello and welcome to my little corner of the internet. I'm Sarah, mum to three children (Oct 2012, Feb 2014 & June 2016). We are a home educating family based in Greater Manchester. Here I share about our Home Ed journey, days out, books and activities and well as my quest to stay sane by running and hitting the gym!

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