DIY table top puppet stage and The Three Little Pigs

My students LOVE puppets and puppet shows so I made a few quick DIY puppet stages for the children to play with and introduced the stages to the children by presenting the story of “The Three Little Pigs”…

We have been talking about houses so “The Three Little Pigs” folktale is always a good fit for a housing unit since it includes the discussion of three different types of housing materials…

I collected what I needed for our puppet show including a bundle of sticks, some straw, and a brick and placed it all in a story telling bag. Oh, and of course I had three little pink pigs which I picked up at our local Deals store (kind of like a Dollar Store) and for after our puppet show, I decided to read this version of “The Three Little Pigs” by Paul Galdone which is based on the original folktale.

Now that I had all my materials together for the story of The Three Little Pigs, I also needed a puppet stage so I cut out a table top stage from a piece of science board which I also purchased at Deals. I started by cutting the cardboard science board in half (which gave me two table top stages)…

Next, I cut a hole in the middle of each stage and Mrs. Courtney helped me paint the back of each one.  I made three total for our puppet show and a few extra for play.  I painted one red (for brick), one yellow (for straw), and one brown (for wood)…

Instead of telling the original folktale to my students, I told a different version of the story – the one where all the pigs end up in the little brick house together and live happily ever after.  In the original folktale, the first two piggies actually get eaten up by the wolf but for the puppet show, I really didn’t want to have the big bad wolf eat my pink pigs…

The children played the role of the Big Bad Wolf. Each time it was time for the wolf to “huff and puff and blow the house in” the children would huff and puff and blow one of our puppet stages off the table and onto the floor. Then that little piggy would run over to his brother’s house and ask if he could stay with him…

Eventually, all three little pigs ended up in the brick house together only our wolves were not able to blow it down no matter how much they huffed and puffed…

After our puppet show, we read the original folktale of “The Three Little Pigs” by Paul Galdone and then compared the book version with the puppet show version.  My students decided that the wolf was not very nice at all and that if I let them play with my piggies, they would treat them much better than that mean old wolf…

The children have requested a return of our Three Little Pig Puppet show every day since I presented it and I am now preparing our next puppet show which I hope to share with them very soon.  In the meantime, the children have explored the puppet stages and our box of puppets on their own – creating their own puppet shows for each other…

Puppetry is a great way to promote story telling and to foster language, imagination, communication, and more. If you haven’t given puppetry a try – let me encourage you to do so!

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Deborah J Stewart

Deborah J Stewart

Every time I think I know everything I need to know about teaching young children, God says, "Hold on a minute!" and gives me a new challenge.

Let me tell ya...

With each new challenge that you overcome, you will find yourself better equipped and more passionate about teaching young children.

God didn't call wimps to lead, teach, or care for His children. Nope, he has high expectations, so get ready. You will have to give your very best but after teaching for over 30 years, I can tell you that it is a wonderful and rewarding journey.

Whenever your calling feels hard, just remember, 'He who began a good work in you (and in the children you serve) will be faithful to complete it.'

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