The Super Smart Pig...

....built his house of kryptonite. We are fracturing fairy tales and scrambling stories super. Today the elem kids made Super Smart Pigs, complete with capes and x-ray vision glasses. Did a lot of brainstorming of super abilities for our pigs. This is going better than the year when we made Rock & Roll Trolls at the Fairyland Bandstand, complete with teeny tiny disco balls. Back to the stuffed pigs--no apple in the mouth! Buy pink paper sacks (brown bag lunch style) from Michaels, or an artsy/craftsy/party supply store. Open up the sacks by sneaking your hand in and wiggling your fingers all around to open the sack. These "pigs are very hungry. Can't you hear them oinking?" (Everybody oinks like crazy, and talented folks also grunt and snuffle) The pigs get fed with crumpled up double pages of the Dallas Morning News. Depending on the age of the kids, the teacher may need to do the "feeding" to avoid ripping the sacks. Roll down and scrunch the top of the sack as you would a lunch bag. You could also fold and staple. Glue on ears where the bag is scrunched. The legs could be pink felt, construction paper, or corks. Draw the face with markers, or get fancy gluing googly eyes and button noses. Curl pink pipe cleaners (cut in half) for tails, and poke them into the back. That had to hurt! While the preschoolers were happy just making pigs, we went for a more complex scenario for the elementary kids. When the Super Smart Pigs were done, the kids were "flying" them around and having comic book dialogues. A six-year old boy stopped making those boy shooting sound effects, and announced, "There! I got him! The evil Canadian is no more!" The middle school kids will create Personality Plus Pigs next week to connect with the characterization focus in drama class. I am getting the urge to create my own papier mache personality pig!