Elephant and Piggie Book Activities

I know when I first started teaching, the Elephant and Piggie series didn’t exist, but I’ve been reading the books for so long now, I can’t remember my teaching life without them.

When my own kids were little, they couldn’t get enough of these two unlikely friends. And for well over a decade now, our students are just as in love with these quirky little characters as any kid I’ve ever known.

Elephant and Piggie have stood the test of time. And for good reason. They’re relatable.

Their emotions run high. They are impulsive, sometimes selfish, often impatient. They yell and they argue. And sometimes they get mad. In each book, you wonder if they’ll be able to overcome their differences and just when you’re really worried, (whew), they do. They are forever friends… friends who fight, forgive, and move forward, together. Always.

Year after year, the Elephant and Piggie books maintain their spot in our plans. They’re funny and they’re pretty easy for the kids to read. But the big thing is, they’re packed with important life lessons about strength of character and the value of close relationships.

It’s enough to just share them. No agenda. Just read.

But if you’re thinking you want to take these stories to the next level, we have a few ideas to share.

ELEPHANT AND PIGGIE ACTIVITIES

A no-brainer is to start with a bit of comprehension. Each book is thick, but there’s actually very little text inside. The stories are told primarily through speech bubbles, but the reader has to pay close attention to the illustrations, particularly the facial expressions. Much of the meaning comes by noticing how Mo Willems drew the characters.

We have lots of worksheets to help children develop their comprehension skills using this book series. You can preview several of them HERE. They’re just right for starting conversations and guiding kids toward deeper meanings.

If your schedule allows, we LOVE these readers theater scripts! They give the children a chance to practice rereading the texts, but also allow for a little creativity as they work in small teams to design simple props and costumes for their eventual “performance.”

We have enough Elephant and Piggie scripts for the whole class to break up into groups and tackle different books. That’s fun… go for it! But it’s also fun to give two different groups the same readers theater script and see how they interpret it differently… great for practicing the skills of comparing and contrasting.

Note: Each readers theater script is partially complete. There are a variety of reasons for this, but what we love about it is the children have to finish writing it by going back into the book and writing down the characters and the remaining dialogue to complete the script for their team. These are a really fun and well-rounded way to practice many reading and writing skills.

PLAN A CLASSROOM CELEBRATION

You can actually find a lot of ideas online for hosting your own Elephant and Piggie party. We have a few ideas to share in THIS RESOURCE, but don’t skip the chance to see what other teachers are doing. (Pinterest is a good spot for this.)