The Little Red Hen

Attention: open in a new window. PrintE-mail

The Little Red Hen

By Paul Galdone, Clarion Books, 1973

 

Concepts and Themes To Teach

  • Sprout
  • Wheat/weeds
  • Thresh
  • Mill
  • Flour
  • Ground
  • Knead
  • Animals: cat, dog, mouse,
  • Cozy
  • A stove that heats by fire

 

 

Expanded Core Curriculum Skills and Activities

 

 

Compensatory Skills

  • Present some grains of wheat, real wheat stalks, and a few products made from wheat.  Discuss what each item is.

 

  • Gathering eggs: fill a large container with yellow or brown shredded paper.  Hide hard boiled eggs in the “hay”.  Give the child a basket and have them gather the eggs.

 

 

Orientation and Mobility

  • Biscuit Hunt

Hide some stalks of wheat outside in the playground ahead of time.  Plant it upright in the sand if possible.  Hide a pretend some eggs, sugar, and salt in different locations that the children know from their travels.  Butter, and a carton of milk should be hidden in a cool place.  Tell the children that you are going to be making a type of bread, biscuits, but need to find all of the ingredients.  Give the children hints to each location one at a time.  Using their O&M travel skills, have the children move to, and search the area for each named item.  When they find the wheat, have them take it to the cafeteria and ask the kitchen staff to thrash the wheat for them (prepare staff!).  After the last item is found, have the children travel back to the cafeteria to pick up their bag of flour.  Take all of the items back to the classroom table.  Follow the recipe for making biscuits, having the children participate in each step.  Use a marking such as a home-made road sign in front of the griddle area for “no walking”.

 

 

Social Interaction

  • Retell the story with several children representing the animals: hen, pig, duck.  Children should repeat “not I” or “then I will” at the appropriate part of the story

 

 

Independent Living Skills

  • List all of the household chores that the little red hen did, without any help.  Discuss the chores that the child has around the house.

 

  • Bake some bread.  Use a bread machine, have the child measure the ingredients to put in it.

 

  • Bread dough

Get a loaf of frozen dough and let it thaw out.  Use it like play dough, rolling and cutting it.  Another option is to use refrigerated rolls

 

  • Make bread in a bag.  Combine the ingredients in a 1 gallon freezer bag.  Seal and have the child shake to stir the ingredients.  Then knead the dough still in the bag by pressing and squeezing.

 

 

Career & Vocational Education

  • Visit a bakery to find interview the baker.  Find out what he does, what he wears, especially what time he/she comes to work

 

  • Job description of a baker can be found at

http://stepfour.com/jobs/v3/313381010.htm

 

 

Assistive Technology

  • Online Story time, The Little Red Hen read aloud, the pages needed to be “turned” by a click of mouse or enter key. At Starfall.com

 

  • Online Activity - Science:  Wheat- Plants Growth, Harvesting, Milling, Baking- The Little Red Hen Slide Show

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Creative_Resources/slides/sld001.htm

 

 

Visual Efficiency Skills

  • Webbing into Literacy: The Little Red Hen Activity Cards can be printed out and used for matching and sorting games.

http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/wil/Little_Red_Hen_Activity_Card.pdf

 

Self-determination

 

  • Discuss family, classroom, and community responsibilities/ ways to help and contribute positively