Rainbow Connection: Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Wolf?

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Wolf?

Are wolves really so big and bad? We read quite a few fairy tales like The Three Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and Peter and the Wolf. These tales had us convinced that wolves are pretty bad. Then we read Walk with a Wolf by Jannie Hakker and found out they're not at all like the fairy tales have them characterized. We had fun with the fairy tales, though!

We put on a puppet show of "The Three Little Pigs". We each took turns playing different parts.

It was fun to practice huffing, puffing and blowing like the big, bad wolf. First we used straws and cotton balls for practice. We huffed and puffed and blew the cotton balls across the table.

Then, we used eyedroppers to drop paint on our papers and straws to blow the paint. The process created some interesting artwork. All that blowing was hard work. We don't know how the wolf did it!

We watched a presentation of Peter and the Wolf and then instead of representing each animal with sounds, we represented them with actions- Peter skipped merrily along...not a care in the world. Grandfather stepped with big, heavy steps. We used our arms as wings for Sasha, the bird, and waddled like a duck for Sonja. We portrayed Ivan, the cat, by getting down on all fours, crawling sneakily along. We marched along as hunters and last but not least, crawled ferociously on all fours, representing the wolf.

We read two different renditions of "Little Red Riding Hood". The first was the tale we are all familiar by Candice Ransom.

The second was Little Red Riding Hood: A Newfangled Prairie Tale by Lisa Campbell Ernst.

Both stories had happy endings but gave us a good chance to talk about the dangers of talking to strangers.

We made muffins just like the ones Little Red took to her grandma's house!

Last, but not least, we left the fantasy world of wolves to read Walk with a Wolf by Jannie Hakker

and learn about the real world of wolves

and how they live.

Wolves live in families called "packs". When dad and mom are away hunting, the "children" or cubs are left with babysitters like aunts and uncles. We talked about how we live in families and we each drew a picture of our family.

Wolves have a great sense of smell. We used our sense of smell to experiment with smell jars. Each was filled with something with a familiar scent like oranges, chocolate, cinnamon, coffee... We sniffed the jars and tried to guess what the scent was.

Wolves also have a great sense of hearing. We listened to different sound from an "app" like a toilet flushing, water running, different sirens, a baby crying, etc. We had to listen carefully and then identify the sound.

Wolves also have an amazing sense of sight. We went for an "I Spy...Like a Wolf" scavenger hunt. We had to use our sharp wolf eyes to find the things listed.