3 Little Pigs STEM Activity
As the end of the school year draws near, I have been reminiscing about the 6 months I had with my students this school year and came across my favorite lesson: The 3 Little Pigs STEM challenge! I found this activity all over Pinterest so I am not sure to whom I should give original credit. If it is you, thank you for the idea!
I started this activity by reading my students two versions of the story: the traditional 3 Little Pigs and The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs. Many of my students had never read the wolf’s perspective so it was fun to watch their faces as the story progressed. It made them think about point of view and they wondered which version of the story was accurate.
After reading these stories, we made a Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting the perspectives. I love letting my students take over this part of the task, both coming up with the ideas and getting to write on the paper. This always increases participation because my students love to take ownership over their ideas. Here is what they came up with:
Next comes the STEM part of this activity! My students worked in pairs to build a strong enough house for a little pig to stay safe against a big, bad wolf. They had the choice of 3 different materials: pipe cleaners, spaghetti noodles, and toothpicks. The only “sticky” material I gave them was 12 mini marshmallows. I was hoping that students would have to get creative with how they used these. We spent time talking about what qualifies as a house, the main requirement being that it needs a roof and had to be big enough for the paper pig to stand up straight.
Here are some of the progress photos during the activity:
After students were done making the houses, I introduced the “big, bad wolf” hair dryer!!! The kids went wild! They had no idea that we were actually going to try and blow their houses down!
Some houses were successful, others were not. But, this one deserves an honorable mention… the spike fort! I asked these students about their design, pointing out that it did not have a roof. They laughed and said “Mrs. Crawley, it doesn’t need a roof because if the wolf tries to get close, he will just get poked!” I mean, you can’t argue with that!
This activity was so much fun! I love when I get to connect subjects and my students love STEM activities! I will definitely be doing this again (whenever we get to go back to the classroom). What other cross-subject projects do you love to do with your kids? I would love to hear your ideas!
