Are you planning on incorporating pigs into your Pre-K lesson plans this year? Have you already come up with a list of suitable activities yet? If not, I’d suggest trying one of the following:
I would recommend starting your pig lesson plan by introducing the children to a few new vocabulary words. Vocabulary words to consider adding to your children’s list are “sow”, “hoof”, “hog”, “snout”, “litter” and “piglet.” The Busy Barns Farm has a “Parts of the Pig” handout, “Pig Pattern Vocabulary Practice” sheet and an “About Pigs” booklet that would be helpful in that regard. The handouts are part of the “Swine Are Divine Curriculum Resource Booklet.” The booklet also contains other materials that you may find useful. Among them are templates for pig ears, pig math worksheets and bulletin board posters.
Still want more? You could also opt to use the “Playful Pig Sentence Building” worksheet available through the Education website. It contains vocabulary words like “pig”, “mud” and “play.” The same website contains other language arts handouts that you may want to utilize as well. They are “Sound Off, Short I: Practicing Phonics”, “Beginning Sounds Coloring: Sounds Like Pig”, “Short I Sounds Color Puzzle”, “Beginning Spelling” and “Word Family Match I.”
If you plan on reading “The Three Little Pigs” to the kids, you may want to consider grabbing a copy of the site’s “The Three Little Pigs Rebus” and “The Three Little Pigs Words” handouts too.
Math
Next, you may want to consider incorporating the pig theme into a math segment. One great way to do that is to create a pig themed counting game. There are three different counting games that I know of. The first uses a pig themed set of dice and a game board. You can find those materials posted on the Wisconsin Pork Producers Association’s website.
When you get to the website, you’ll want to download and print the “Welcome to Our Farm Booklet.” It was written by the National Pork Board and contains an adorable pig dice template that will be needed in order to play the game. The same booklet contains math worksheets and other supplementary materials that you may find useful as well.
The second counting game is posted on the Ag in the Classroom Louisiana website. It involves having the children make, count and sort pig ear tags. The third counting game is titled “Pig Race!” It involves pig shaped cut-outs and a single die. You can find a template and instructions for playing it posted on the Education website.
I should also mention that the same website contains several pig math worksheets. Titles to look for while you are there include “Pig Math”, “Money Sort: Piggy Bank”, “Farm Addition”, “Tracing Numbers: 2” and “Three Pigs Addition: Adding Three Numbers.”
Arts and Crafts
When the kids are finished with the math games and worksheets, you may want to let them engage in a few arts and crafts activities. The North Carolina Ag in the Classroom website has a cute “Painting with Pigs” art project that you may want to try. It involves talking about how parts of a pig are used to create paint brushes and then painting a pig handout. It is part of a “Pigs and Their Products Booklet.” The same booklet also contains a template for creating a pig puppet out of a paper bag.
Speaking of puppets, you can also find two “Three Little Pigs Finger Puppets Templates” and a pig mask template posted on the Education website. The same site also has “Pig Coloring Page”, “Cutting Triangles: Build a House” and “Follow the Triangle and Rectangle Path 2” worksheets that you may want to incorporate into the activity as well.
If you still need more arts and crafts activities, I’d suggest grabbing a copy of the pig coloring book and pig cut-outs posted on the Wisconsin Pork Producers Association’s website. The kids may enjoy completing them as well.
Source: Personal Experience
More from this contributor:
Peppa the Pig” Themed Party Favors for Preschoolers
How to Carve a Bone-In Pork Loin Roast for the Holidays
Top Cuban Style Pork Dishes to Try in the New Year
Dried Apple Wreaths Make Ideal Holiday Gifts
