The Three Little Pigs-Materials and their uses
The topic of the Three Little Pigs who each choose a different material (straw, sticks and bricks) with which to build their house makes a great starting point for work on materials. Also including the story of The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig by Eugene Trivisas would give even more examples of different materials and how they are made. The three little wolves use bricks, concrete, reinforced steel and, finally in desperation, flowers, to make their home.
These activities would support children to think about identifying different materials and considering what properties they have and how this suits them for different purposes.
Making concrete blocks
Children are very excited to make their own concrete and it is surprisingly easy to do!
One class of children worked scientifically to test the effect of different amounts of sand on the strength of concrete. They made several bricks (in margarine containers as described in this activity) each with different amounts of sand. They then tested to see which was the strongest by hitting them with a hammer (wearing safety goggles of course).
Making concrete is also a useful way to tackle capacity work in maths. Young children find it very difficult to understand the importance of measuring capacity carefully; if you ask them to fill a bucket with five cups of water they will scoop five times but without checking to see that the cup is full each time or being careful not to spill any. This activity however gives a context for measuring carefully.
The instructions given here are for slightly older children; I would ensure that KS1 children worked in small groups with adult support. I would also suggest that safety goggles and gloves were worn throughout. The cement (the grey powder that is one of the ingredients of concrete) needs to be handled very carefully as it would be harmful if it got in the eyes or if it was inhaled.
This activity would link particularly strongly if you had shared the story of 'The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig' with your class.
Science Materials
A class visit to a builders merchants would fit very well with the story of the Three Little Pigs. As well as being unexpectedly interesting for all children in might be particularly engaging for some children who are more challenging to enthuse.
This 15 minute clip shows a class teacher planning a visit to a water mill with a science advisor and considering how maximum science learning could be achieved. Looking at this before planning a visit to a builders merchant (or any other venue) might help to focus on what the potential science learning could be.
Pencils, Poems and Princesses
The activity (on page 45 of this resource) is about experimenting to find the best ratio for sand and water to make a sandcastle that is dry enough to tip out of the bucket yet wet enough to hold together.
This might be a good preliminary activity to making the concrete (first activity in this list). Or it could work as a stand alone activity. It would support children to work scientifically as they would have to make careful measurements and record their results if they were to find a repeatable 'recipe' that they could use again.
It could also be linked to work on the maths curriculum measuring capacity and also thinking about ways to record their results.
Renewable Building Materials
These leaflets are about some of the materials that are used in house building. They are not aimed at young children but do have pictures. The first (which is an introduction) could well be of interest to children. Especially if you are linking your work on materials to a topic in DT about building.
Beat the Flood STEM challenge
Most of the activities in this link would need a lot of adult support for this age group. However, they are introduced with a short video clip which explains why certain materials are chosen to build houses in flood prone areas. This would link very well to both the story of the Three Little Pigs and the topic of Materials and their properties.
It could be linked to the bamboo cane den activity which is described above.
Three little pigs and the recycled houses
This activity introduces the materials life cycle and invites pupils to design recycled houses for the Three Little Pigs and to consider how the materials they choose for their designs could be reused or recycled.
