Summary: In this hilarious book, we follow Mr. A Wolf in his voyage to find a cup of sugar. Along the way he sneezes his way through pigs houses. This is the viewpoint of the wolf from the famous book, The Three Little Pigs. Although everyone knows the pigs story, it is time to find out the wolf's story.
Pre-Reading Activity: Read or do a flannel board of the The Three Little Pigs. If you have a smart board in your classroom there is an excellent visual of this as well. After talking about the book or visual a bit, ask what about the wolf? What do you think the wolf was thinking when he went to these pigs houses?
Post-Reading Activity: Compare and contrast the two stories, that of the wolf and that of the pigs. Which one do you think really happened? Talk to the students about how there are different perspectives to a story. How everything you hear is not always true. Talk about how there are were two different retellings of the same event. Is there really three sides to a story: one persons version, the other persons version, and what really happened. If you have enough time you could even have the students write a the story of what they think really happened and entitle it: What Actually Happened When Three Little Rude Pigs Met One Big Bad Wolf.
Reflection: I really enjoyed this book and even laughed to myself reading it. This book can be used in so many ways in early elementary years. But I was also thinking that it could be used in older classrooms as well if you are having trouble in the classroom with the children getting along or always making up things about one another. You can discuss with them how there can be two different sides to a story. You cannot always believe what you hear unless you were actually there.
About the Author
From the author: "I write books because I love to make kids laugh. I knew Lane Smith (illustrator of The True Story of the Three Little Pigs!, The Stinky Cheese Man and Squids Will Be Squids) would do a great job because we like a lot of the same cartoons and books and ideas. And we laugh at each other's bad jokes all of the time. Our audience is hardcore silly kids, and there are a lot of 'em out there! My motto in writing is: “Never underestimate the intelligence of your audience.” Kids can be silly and smart!" (www.scholastic.com)
Things I Found That Were Interesting...
Here is the video I would use in my classroom for The Three Little Pigs
Here is a fun narrative of The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs
I've been a big fan of Jon Scieszka and his books since I was a student, and this book was one of my favorites. I really liked the idea of using it as a resource for showing perspective since so many children are already familiar with the traditional (pig-centric) version. Great find and cool videos!
From the first time that I read this story, I absolutely fell in love with it. How cute to show a different perspective. My son loves reading it and went on forever wondering which story was the "real" version.
I've been a big fan of Jon Scieszka and his books since I was a student, and this book was one of my favorites. I really liked the idea of using it as a resource for showing perspective since so many children are already familiar with the traditional (pig-centric) version. Great find and cool videos!
ReplyDeleteFrom the first time that I read this story, I absolutely fell in love with it. How cute to show a different perspective. My son loves reading it and went on forever wondering which story was the "real" version.
ReplyDelete