The Little Red Hen
Bibliography:
Galdone , P. (1985). The little red hen. Clarion Books.
Plot Summary:
The story starts by introducing the family of a hen, cat, dog, and mouse. The Hen does all the work in the house, she cleans, cooks, tends the garden, all while the cat sleeps on the couch, the dog sleeps on the porch, and the mouse sleeps on a chair by the fireplace. One day when tending the garden, the hen finds a grain of wheat, she asks "who will plant this wheat", and when everybody but the hen denies, she does the work by herself. The hen asks who will tend the wheat, who will cut the wheat, who will take it to the mill to be ground into flour, who will make a cake from the flour, and everyone denies except for the hen, so she does all the work herself. Then when baking the cake, the smell travels through the house and the cat, dog, and mouse gather in the kitchen with the hen. The hen then asks who will eat the cake, everyone agrees to eat it, but the hen says she will have it by herself because she did all the work herself. Then on out, all of the animals helped the hen with all the chores and work around the house.
Personal Connection:
This old fable is a perfect example that things aren't handed to us, we have to work for them. This tale teaches independence, children need a lot of help and things handed to them but in school, they have to be more independent, and this fable can help to teach this principle. Growing up, my mom always preached independence, sure, she cared for us, but she taught my sister and me to be able to do things ourselves and to take care of ourselves. My grandma on the other hand did anything and everything for my sister and me, and because of this, we would get mad and frustrated with our mom for not being like our grandma. I realize now that my mom was just trying to prepare me to work for what I want, to be determined, and to not expect things to be handed to me. Just as this was a valuable lesson for me to be learned, this is a valuable lesson for any kid to learn, and I would love to have this book in my classroom!
Classroom Connection:
A good lesson to teach with this book would be cause and effect: the hen does this task with the wheat then this must happen next to get to the end result. One activity that can be used for this lesson would be a sequence chart, students can sort events and put them on a chart in the correct order, which also involves them paying attention and comprehending the text. This could be done either individually on a worksheet, in groups on a poster board or velcro board, or with the whole class or in small group with a while bord or an anchor chart. Another assignment that can be used with this lesson would be to draw the different events of the book from the beginning to the end on a comic strip or a graphic organizer. This would be a fun activity as well as enriching for the child because students will have to imagine the scenes.
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