The Little Red Hen

     Many younger students love this story for its strong sense of right and wrong.  This is a concept that children develop fairly early, and the plot of this story is simple enough that most students can  fully understand the Hen's motivations for acting the way she did.

        In addition, The Little Red Hen lends itself well to many extension activitiesinto other curricular areas, such as science, math, character education, etc.   The sample lessons below are intended for a kindergarten classroom, but could easily be adapted for pre-kindergarten or first grade. 
 

Materials:
Read Aloud Books--Traditional retellings

• The Little Red Hen, Paul Galdone (Houghton Mifflin, 1985)
• One of Galdone's retellings of traditional folktales
• The Little Red Hen, Byron Barton (HarperCollins Children's Books, 1993)
•  Bold illustrations, simple retelling, great for PreK
• The Little Red Hen: An Old Story, Margot Zemach (Sunburst, 1993)
• The Little Red Hen is a single mom; Zemach is a Caldecott winner

• The Little Red Hen (Makes a Pizza), Philomene Sturges, author; Amy Walrod, illustrator (Dutton, 1999)
• This time the lazy animals get to share in the food, but they have to clean up afterwards
• Cook-a-Doodle-Doo, Janet Stevens, author; Susan Stevens Crummel, illustrator (Harcourt Brace, 1999)
• The Little Brown Rooster, a descendant of the Little Red Hen, makes a strawberry shortcake with his helpful but misguided friends: the turtle, the iguana, and the pot-bellied pig.

Sample Lessons for Kindergarten

• Read one of the traditional versions out loud to your students. (See Read Aloud Strategies for general information on sharing books with children)
• Engage the students in a discussion of the behavior of  Little Red Hen's friends.  Would your students want their classmates to act like this?  Why or why not?  Ask your students if they feel the Little Red Hen was justified in her actions, given the behavior of her friends.  Why or why not?  Are there any other ways the Little Red Hen could have handled the situation?
• Leave the book out for students to explore on their own.

• Re-read the version that you read during Session 1, this time encouraging the students to join in on the repeated phrases.
• Discuss the importance of teamwork in a variety of places: home, school, playground, etc.  How do your students work together in these situations?  What would happen if they didn't work together?  Review classroom helper roles and reasons for having these jobs.
 
Related web site!! This site has plans for two twenty-minute lessons on family roles and helping.  The discussion is tied to The Little Red Hen, and includes a student activity sheet for assessment.

• Read a different traditional version with your students, and afterwards engage them in a discussion of how the two are similar/different.  One way to help your students respond is through Interactive Writing .  This chart can remain up throughout your study of the various versions of The Little Red Hen.  It can be done as a table with headings (How are the stories the same?  How are they different?), or as a Venn diagram.  Leave this book out along with the version from Session 1.

• Re-read the version from Session 3.  After reviewing the versions from Session 1 and Session 3, have students vote on their favorite version.  This can be done as a graphing activity.

• Introduce and read the third traditional version of The Little Red Hen.  Again, compare and contrast this version with those read during Sessions 1 and 3.  Update your table/Venn diagram.

• Re-read the version from Session 5 and have the students join in.  Have the students informally act out the story a couple of times, rotating parts each time.  Leave all three versions out for students to compare on their own.

• Review classroom helper roles from Session 2.  Brainstorm helper roles for the lazy characters in The Little Red Hen.  List on a chart using Interactive Writing .  Prepare a cooking activity, and assign helper roles to classroom students.  Chart for future reference.


Related web site!!  This site has a simple bread recipe that could easily used in the classroom.
 

  Related web site!!  This is a great set of interdisciplinary plans for kindergarten that covers bread-making around the world.  Includes factual information, assessment activities, and incorporates many content areas.

 

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