Pets & Other Animals Level: Early Grades - Creative music

A Great Big Pig

The best way to teach this song is to use the first me, then you method, taking a line at a time and starting with just the words (Check that the children understand the word, 'sty'):

• A great big pig once lived in a sty
• And three little piggies had she
• She waddled about saying 'Oink oink oink'
• While the little ones said 'Wee! Wee!'

Big Pig, Little Piglet - Music corner activity

Loud and Quiet Pigs! (dynamics)

Put out a selection of instruments. In pairs the children each choose an instrument - one loud for the big pig and one quiet for the little piglets. Make up a little sequence together:

Big Pig (loud) - Piglets (quiet) - Big Pig (loud)

Then swap over instruments and try again.

Fast and Slow Pigs! (tempo)

Make up another sequence:

Big Pig (play slowly) – Piglets (play quickly) – Big Pig (slowly)

Swap instruments and try again.

Piggy Sounds to Symbols

To begin helping children to relate sounds to symbols, have finger paint and big sheets of paper ready. Ask the children make pictures of their three sounds, in a row, in the order they played them (eg loud-quiet-loud). They will need to think how a loud sound might look different from a quiet one, and how quick sounds can be shown as different from slow ones.

Your Piggy Song (pitch, structure)

Everyone practise making high pitch and low pitch piggy sounds: grunt, squeal, running on trotters, talking 'like a pig' and so on. Make a 'pig sty' out of boxes then give each child the chance to go inside the pig sty and make up their own piggy song using words and noises.

Big Pig, Little Piglet - Solo Version

For 'Loud & Quiet Pigs' and 'Fast & Slow Pigs', the children listen to the song first then individual children choose just one instrument each for making up the sequences. You will need to put out instruments that are capable of playing loud and quiet, and fast and slow. 'Piggy Sounds to Symbols' is essentially a solo activity.