The Little Red Hen

As a part of our farm unit, we read The Little Red Hen by Paul Galdone. This story is about a hardworking little red hen who lives in a house with 3 lazy animals. As her roommates spend their days napping, the little red hen is busy cooking the meals, washing the dishes, mending the clothes, and tending the garden. One day, she finds a grain of wheat, and although she asks her roommates for help, they all refuse to help her plant, grow, harvest, and grind the wheat. They also won't pitch in when she takes the wheat and uses it to make a cake. However, when the cake comes out of the oven, the animals are all ready to help the little red hen eat it! After reading the story several times, we decided to a "Project Act" activity called "The Hot Seat". We began by reviewing the chores that the Little Red Hen did throughout the story. We discussed how the pig, the duck and the cat were lazy. This lead us into a discussion about why it is not good to be lazy! Next, we held a trial! We put the cat, the pig and the duck on trial and had them sit in the "hot seats". The rest of the class sat around them and acted as "The Little Red Hen". Each student took turns inquiring why each animal did not help to weed the garden, water the plants, harvest the wheat, or bake the cake. The students in the hot seats got to come up with any "excuse" to defend themselves. Their responses were hilarious.
After performing the "Hot Seat", we wrote apology letters in our journals to the Little Red Hen!

After being asked why the duck did not help the Red Hen with the chores, the duck explained "I was too busy taking a bath in my pond." When asked why the cat did not help to water the plants, he replied, " I don't like water!". The pig stated that he was too busy building a mud house to keep himself cool!

After performing the "Hot Seat", we wrote apology letters in our journals to the Little Red Hen!

We created our own tear art "Little Red Hens".

We wrote hen facts inside of our hens!