DLTK's Fairy Tale Activities
The Three Little Pigs Houses

Materials you will need for all the houses are

• the top of a milk carton (adults should cut the top off for the kids) or use a single serving carton and you won't need to cut it,
• scissors,
• tape or glue,
• a marker
• OPTIONAL:  brown paper (we used cut up paper bags)

STRAW HOUSE (three different options of materials):

• some sort of straw...  We used packing material, you could also use raffia or dried weeds from outside (this is great fun to collect on a nature walk),
   
  OR
• use yellow tissue paper or crepe paper, cut into 4 or 5 inch strips.  Twist the strips of it into pieces of straw (just roll/crunch them between your palms, like making snakes out of playdough)
• OR
• use the Straw Template I've provided.  Just cut the sheet into pieces to fit around your house.

WOOD HOUSE (three different options of materials):

• some sort of twigs...  Use popsicle sticks, toothpicks or real twigs from outside (this is also great fun to collect on a nature walk),
   
  OR
• Roll pieces of paper bag around a straw and tape/glue to make logs or use newspaper to make your logs and then paint them brown.  For more detailed directions, see the instructions for Abe Lincoln's cabin.
• OR
• use the Wood Template I've provided.  Just cut the sheet into pieces to fit around your house.

BRICK HOUSE:

• Suggestion from Nicole, one of our viewers:  One idea I had for making the bricks on the brick house was to cut a sponge into a square and dip it in tempera paint, then sponge the bricks on the milk carton top.
• Suggestion from Jean, one of our viewers:  I have just printed the sheets for the "Three Little Pigs" story and I have a suggestion for the brick house, I plan to use legos.
   
  OR
• use the Brick Template I've provided.  Just cut the sheet into pieces to fit around your house.

CORK PIG:

• Tasha (age 6) insisted that the toilet paper roll pig and pig paper bag puppet weren't good because the pig wouldn't be able to get in the front door of the house (unlike her big sister, this fact did not bother Kaitlyn - age 2 - in the least.  She was quite happy with a tiny house and a big paper bag pig puppet to go with it).
• Anyways, Tasha made this craft up and I thought I'd share it with you quickly, just in case you have children who are aware of proportion, too!
• Take a cork from a wine bottle and paint it pink or wrap it in pink construction paper.
• Cut out a white paper snout (or use a white dried bean), white paper eyes (or use googly eyes) and pink triangle ears (pink construction paper or colour white paper with a pink marker)
• Glue all this to the head.
• Cut out a spiral tail (cut a pink circle and then cut it in a spiral shape)  Glue the tail to the back.
• Glue 4 beads or 4 dried beans to the bottom as legs.  (arrange the legs on a piece of paper, put glue on top of them and set the pig on top of the glue...  This is lots easier than putting the glue on the pig and trying to stick the legs on).

HOW TO MAKE THE HOUSES:

• I'm assuming your container has been opened at some point...  Staple or tape the part that you opened closed again.
• Cover your house with paper. 
  • We used brown paper bag, cut it in a long strip the width of our carton and wrapped it around the carton.
  • We then taped it (you could glue).
  • You could use white paper instead.
• Draw a door on the house (and windows if you want) with a marker
• Apply glue on one side of the house.  Glue your chosen material/template piece onto the side.
• Do this with all the sides.

• Cut a piece of brown (or white paper) to be a roof size (ours was about 8 inches x 5 inches for a 2L carton, but it will differ depending on whether you use a 2L, 1L or single serving carton).
• Fold your roof down the middle and then unfold again.
• Cover your roof (top) with the chosen material/template piece.  You can actually use a different kind of roof material if you want to.
• Put glue on the top of your carton and carefully place your roof on top.

OPTIONAL:

• You can take a sheet of cardboard (one panel from an empty cereal box will work well) and glue your house to it.
• Add ground:
  • Cover the cardboard with grass (wadded up bits of tissue paper or construction work well for this)
    or
  • make a fall scene by adding a few bits of orange/red/yellow tissue paper or construction paper leaves
    or
  • make a winter scene with cotton balls.
• Add trees:
  • Take pinecones, paint green (if you want) and glue to the scene as trees.
    or
  • Take a twig.  Cut bits of green (or fall coloured) paper and glue to the twig as leaves.  Make a mound of playdough or cut a smidge of floral foam and glue it on the cardboard and stick your twig in it.
• Make a path from small pebbles or sand (apply glue to the cardboard and pour sand/pebbles over top.  Let dry and then go outside and gently tip is over to remove excess).
• Add a cork pig if you like.

Templates:

• Close the template window after printing to return to this screen.
• Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one page (FILE, PAGE SETUP or FILE, PRINTER SETUP in most browsers).

Straw Template

Wood Template

Brick Template

Print friendly version of these instructions