The story of the Three Little Pigs teaches us about hard work and strong foundations in preparation for the possible dangers in life. While hard work is essential to learning and success, we can do better. A lot of times we work hard, but we sometimes take too long to see results or don’t rip great enough benefits. One of the reasons this happens is because a lot of work goes to waste.
The prequel I wrote to the Three Little Pigs emphasizes the benefits of doing your research before attempting to solve a problem. All three pigs need a house so they have to allocate a budget for it. Bennie, the first pig, is afraid of running out of food. However he hasn’t validated his concern. So he spends a disproportionate amount of coppers for food and leaves only one copper for building the house. Vinny is simply not in touch with reality. He assumes all will be well and so spends most of the money for pleasure.
Johnny, on the other hand, does his research before making any decisions. He has ideas of what he’d like, but he is patient. Although he likes the keypad lock, he doesn’t buy it. Before he decides how to spend his coppers, he checks online about possible dangers that he should take into account. Once he collects all the information, he makes a more informed decision on what to do with the house. Making an informed decision, not only increases his success-to-effort ratio, but saves his life and the lives of his brothers as well.
I would expect 3rd graders to be able to read the story on their own. For younger children you will probably have to read the story to them. At any rate, here are a few comprehension questions you can ask at the end (feel free to mix them with your own ones):
1. What did Johnny do differently from his brothers that helped him build a brick house?
(he did his research)
2. Why is it important to collect as much information as we can before doing something?
(so we don’t go the wrong way or spend our time doing work that is not relevant)
3. If you run into a problem that you don’t know how to solve, what is the first thing you should do?
(research and information gathering related to the problem)
I hope we learned something useful today,
Dr. Techniko
