Motion
Putting Stories in
Avery successful preschool project I did at Ohio State University’s Schoenbaum Family Center combined
students’ interest in storytelling,
drama, and multiple literacies. For
this particular project, we used a classic children’s fairy tale, though the
project is easily adaptable for other
stories, texts, content, and age levels.
Mindi Rhoades
The Three Little Pigs
Working with the classroom teachers, students selected The Three Little
Pigs for an exploration of storytelling
and fairy tales. The school librarian
provided the class with different versions of the story and a set of Three
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April 2012 SchoolArts
Little Pigs puppets.
Working with the teachers, we
rigged a puppet stage while teachers
read the story aloud, and students took
turns as puppeteers. Students who
were not operating puppets served
as the audience, and through their
feedback, we all became more aware
of key moments throughout the text,
characterization through action, and
ways to manipulate character actions
to get laughs.
Setting the Stage
As a group, we decided to create an
animated film version of The Three
Little Pigs. I cut out three life-sized
pigs and one wolf figure from foam
core board, and students used spare
clothing to dress them.
