Create your own The Three Little Pigs retelling activity with this free download for kindergarten.
This is how I created a Three Little Pigs retell activity to go in our retell center as a storytelling option for my kindergarten students.
Let me show you what’s in our set and give you the materials to make it happen in your classroom too.
It’s one of my favorite literacy centers and we usually introduce this book in the late winter {which can last for.ev.er. in Indiana}.
The Paul Galdone version of The Three Little Pigs is my favorite one since it includes:
- two pattern sets in the plot
- brings in the concept of time
- and my kinders love the "real" version that all of their bedtime stories never told
Someone usually connects how the last pig ends up eating his brothers by eating the wolf... it stuns the rest of the class!
But when they are retelling this story at the retell center, they read they act, they use lots of great vocabulary and are developing fantastic reading habits all while continuing to build their love of reading.
My kinders get to choose the book(s) they want to retell while they are at this literacy center. This one is usually a favorite.
What's in my Three Little Pigs retell set
Here are the props I gathered rather inexpensively (and you can too) to bring the book alive once we knew it by heart.
I actually inherited the colored props from the teacher I replaced when she retired and left her classroom stuff to me.
The glove finger puppet was a graduation gift and the finger puppets were something I bought for less than $10 online years ago.
A mish-mash - but it's the beauty in this center - it all works.
How to make your own Three Little Pigs retell activity
If you plan to make this a year-long literacy center, I highly recommend that you read the Retell Literacy Center Directions for more details and making everything run smooth.
Because you can make this kindergarten activity yourself and once you and your students are hooked on retelling you’ll want to make this a year-long thing.
Here are the materials you’ll need… (may include affiliate book links to Amazon)
Materials
- The Three Little Pigs Printables (Free download)
- Popsicle Sticks
- The Three Little Pigs Book by Paul Galdone
Or you could use these alternative pieces:
What to do
Take your book copy and your props and place them together. A container like an open basket, a book bin or a large Ziploc bag will work!
We liked to keep a blanket nearby these materials so that they could create a theater-like puppet stage to sit behind.
But all they need to do is have the book and the materials and use the props to tell as much as they can:
- about the story
- from the story
- with the story (following along)
Encourage kinders to use as many words from the text as they can remember. With a patterned story like this one, it’s pretty easy, especially if you read this story multiple times before you release it to your students.
And when you’re done reading the classic version – it’s time to dig into other versions of this story to compare.
- The Three Little Pigs by Patricia Seibert
- The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Lane Smith
- The Three Little Pigs by James Marshall
- The Three Little Pigs by Marie-Louise Gay
- The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig
- The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark
- The Three Little Aliens and the Big Bad Robot
- My Lucky Day
- The 3 Little Pigs Silly Symphony Video
- Three Little Pigs {Cool School Version} Video
Conclusion
There you have it – how to make a Three Little Pigs retell activity for your class. I love that it doesn’t require much to get it done. {wink}
If you like this activity, check out this list of 20 more famous stories that are great for retelling in kindergarten. Most of them are just as simple to pull together and I’ve found all of the downloadable resources for you.
Other books that are great for retelling in kindergarten
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