How To Set Up A Three Little Pigs Tuff Tray

This simple Three Little Pigs Tuff Tray is a great educational tool to encourage role play and storytelling. This activity allows for a multi-sensory experience and your little one will love to retell the story.

My little one has been obsessed with the story of The Three Little Pigs for months now. She absolutely loves to retell the story and so I set up a tuff tray to aid her storytelling and explore her love for the story further. I think this was the first story she truly understood from beginning to end and loves the good vs bad character scenario. The big bag wolf has featured most days in our household!

It is important to note that you most definitely do not need a tuff tray or any of the wooden characters to carry out this activity. We only have the wooden characters and houses from the story because this has been a firm story favourite in our household. You can alternatively draw pictures/ find images from the story online and cut them out, or create stick puppets. Another idea is to use some wooden spoons and some pens or paints and create puppets this way.

Setting up

• Tuff Tray
• Lego bricks for the brick house
• Straw or thin strips of packing paper for the straw house
• Lollypop sticks for the stick house
• Play-doh or blue-tac to enable the sticks and straw to stand up and make a house
• Wooden three little pigs characters, a wolf and three houses. I got this lovely set from: https://www.yellow-door.net/products/the-three-little-pigs-wooden-characters/

Alternatively, you may wish to use some yarn type material for the straw or sticks from outside that you might find in the garden or at the park. Create some stick or wooden spoon puppets for the characters or use any small world animals you may already have (Playmobil, Happyland etc). Print and laminate pictures of the straw, stick and brick house, if you wish. To extend the learning, you could also write down some key vocabulary from the story, for example ‘Three Little Pigs’ ‘Big Bad Wolf’ ‘Huff and Puff’.

Allow your child to explore the activity in any way they wish. They may like to start with having a go at building the houses for the pigs, using the straw, sticks and bricks. Which one will be the most difficult for the big bad wolf to blow down? Can they retell the story in the correct order? Can they make their voice sound like the big bad wolf?

We made these Three Little Pigs stick puppets from Twinkl – https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-t-17257-australia-the-three-little-pigs-stick-puppets

How this activity supports their development

Communication and Language – Develops use of language when retelling the story and encourages communication through telling somebody else a story.

Physical (fine motor) – Little finger and hand muscles are strengthened when manipulating the materials and building the pigs houses.

Literacy – Encourages comprehension and understanding of a story and helps a child to learn and retell a sequence of events from beginning to end. Encourages use of vocabulary in their storytelling and anticipation of key events in the story.

Mathematics – Exploring the number 3 and showing an understanding of each pig building their own house.

Expressive arts and design – Making use of props and resources when retelling the story of the three little pigs and being able to recount the story to others.

Please note:

There is absolutely no need to buy anything new for this activity. I am all about being creative and using what you already have to set up engaging activities – they do not have to be instagram worthy. The only important factor is that it is engaging for your child and they enjoy their play. The more they enjoy, play and interact, the more they will learn. Try modelling acting the story out first as an example for your child to watch and learn from. Using repetitive language from the story will also help your child in their storytelling.

If you liked this activity, why not have a go at crafting a flower sun catcher with your little one – https://theeducatormum.co.uk/toddler-craft-activity-flower-sun-catcher/

Let me know in the comments if you had a go at this activity. Which traditional tale does your child enjoy?