Pigs Aplenty, Pigs Galore! by David McPhail

Prompts

Ask the child questions after the second and third readings of Pigs Aplenty, Pigs Galore!, to start a conversation about the book. You can prompt the child on every page, using the questions below. If the child says something spontaneously about a picture, expand on it and ask the child to repeat it. There are questions for every one or two pages of the story.

1. The man hears some sounds of eating. Can you make the sound of someone eating something? Show me.
2. What is the man holding in his hands? (He is holding a book.)
3. What is the man wearing on his feet? (He is wearing green slippers.)
4. What happens to the man? (He slips on a banana peel and falls down.)
5. What else do you see in the picture? (You can see the little eyes of the pigs.)
6. What does the man fall on? (He falls on a pile of pigs.)
7. What are these pigs doing? (They are making oatmeal in the sink.)
8. What is this little pig riding? (He is riding a skateboard.)
9. Who are these two big pigs? (They are a king and a queen.)
10. Which pig is wearing diapers?
11. What are some of the other pigs wearing? (Pigs are wearing underwear, jackets, pants, crowns, and fancy dresses.)
12. What is happening here? (More pigs are coming to the man's house. They are coming by boat, by plane, by bus, and by train.)
13. Who is this pig? (This is the engineer of the train.)
14. What instrument is this pig playing? (He is playing a guitar.)
15. Who is at the front door? (The pizza man has pizza for the pigs.)
16. What is happening here? (The pigs are eating pizza and throwing it around.)
17. Is the man happy or mad? (He is mad.)
18. How many pigs are in this picture? Let's count them together.
19. What's happening here? (The pigs are begging the man to let them stay.)
20. What are the pigs doing here? (They are cleaning up.)
21. Are they doing a good job cleaning up?
22. What are the pigs doing in these pictures? (They are going upstairs to the bathroom. There they are brushing their teeth and washing themselves.)
23. Where do the pigs sleep? (They all sleep with the man.)
24. What does the man dream about? (He dreams about more pigs.)

Vocabulary

The words listed below come from the story and its pictures. As you page through the book, point to the pictures and ask the child to name the object or the action shown. This will help the child learn new words. You can use the words below, or you can choose words you think will interest your child. Below are words for every one or two pages of the story.

• listening, book, lamp
• stepping
• slipping, falling, banana peel, bunch of bananas
• pigs, sandwich, eating
• oatmeal, sink, skateboard, tutu, kilt, stilts
• underwear, diapers, king, queen
• airplane, train, bus, boat, parachute, cow
• piano, guitar, microphone, singing
• pizzas, throwing, pulling, eating
• angry, yelling
• kneeling
• cleaning, sweeping, broom, shovel, hose, pail, mop
• upstairs, bathroom, brushing teeth, toilet, soap bubbles
• pajamas, sleeping, bed, pillow, dreaming
• blanket