The Little Red Hen

Illustrated by: Linda McQueen

Recommended for: Children Ages 4-8

Themes: Fiction, Folktales, Character Education

Summary:

     In this version of the folktale, the little red hen spends her days busy caring for the home which she shares with a goose, a cat, and a dog. Red Hen finds some wheat which she plants in the garden and tends to all on her own. She asks for help throughout the story but the goose is always too busy gossiping, and the cat is too vain and busy preening, and the dog is always to tired. Each time that the Red Hen asks for help the others refuse or ignored her. So on top of doing all the cooking and cleaning, little Red Hen ended up doing all of the work herself. However, after the Red Hen has finished making a cake out of the flour made from the wheat, the goose, the cat, and the dog all want a piece. The Red Hen tells them that she will eat it all herself since noone wanted to help to tend the wheat, or cut it, or hall it, make it into flour, or bake the cake. After this, the cat, the goose and the dog are all much more helpful in doing the chores.
     Children will enjoy this folktale and comparing the different characters. They will be able to follow the pattern of the story with the Red Hen asking for help and her friends always saying no. The illustrations are simple and help with understanding of the story. Children will enjoy how little Red Hen develops as a character and the lesson that she teaches her friends at the story's conclusion.

Suggestions for the Classroom:
     This book would be a wonderful selection to use when teaching children about folktales, in discussing ssequence of events, plot and character development. For my sample activities, I will discuss using this version of the folktale in comparison to another version of the same tale which is illustrated by Amy Rosenburg in order to show children that when stories are handed down from generation to generation they often change a little, a characteristic of folktales.
*Pre-Reading Activites: Remind children that folktales are stories that are passed down from generation to generation and sometimes the story changes depending on who is telling it. Demonstrate this quickly with the students by playing the game of telephone (works best if they are in a circle). Whisper a sentence to the first child and have them whisper it to the child on the right of them until the last child whispers the sentence back to you (for example: The gray bear had a bug in his hair). With any luck the sentence will have changed by the time it gets back to you (The bear had a bug on him). Write on the board/chart paper what sentence you started with and what you finished with. Discuss if the new sentence changed the meaning even though some of the words change (this will vary in your descriptions.
*During Reading: Read the version of The Little Red Hen illustrated by Linda McQueen to the students.
Point out as you read what the dog, the cat and the goose are doing in comparision to the Red Hen.
Read aloud the version of The Little Red Hen illustrated by Amye Rosenburg to the students. Point out as you read what the gog, the cat and the goosse are doing in comparison to the Red Hen.
*Post-Reading Activities: Have the students compare the characters in the first version of the story to those in the second version using a Venn Diagram. Point out to students that the differences in the story do not change the meaning or the ending to the story. Explain that often Folktales are told in different versions as they are told by one person and then to another and another just as we did before we read the book (when we said "The gray bear had a bug in his hair" and it changed to "The bear had a bug on him").