The Little Red Hen
Author:Florence White Williams
Illustrator: Florence White Williams
An Old English Folk Tale
The story tells the tale of a (Little Red) Hen who wants to make bread. But in order to make the bake and eat, the hen knows there are a certain steps and it is a process. Plant wheat, water and ley grow, cutting down the wheat, grinding it, carrying it to the mill, etc. Every step the hen asks for help from the other animals and, is denied every time Little Hen ask. The determined, persistent Little Red Hen works on alone until, at last, her bread is baked and ready to eat. Immediately the smell of the freshly baked bread draws interest from the other animals, eager to help with the eating of the bread. The Little Red Hen stands firm, informing them they are not entitled to eat the bread because they did not help to make it, despite her requests for help she ate the bread by herself.
After reading another version of the little red head I think the book falls under two genres folktale and fairy tale and I will explain.
The additional version I read the story started off with "Once upon a time" according to our textbook " the characters both influence and are influenced by the event in the story" (Galad, Cullinan and Sipe 210). The other animals in the students were influenced by the main character the little red hen. I also have read different variation of The Little Red Hen so that what got me thinking that it could go under the folktale genre. The fact that other authors incorporated additional details but the story still has the same problem. The outcome could be different where the Little Red Hen shares the bread with the other animals despite them not helping. By the Little Red Hen sharing her bread with the other animals it shows a nice and caring quality the hen possess.
Bloom's Taxonomy Question;
What was the problems with the other animals?
How would you feel if you were the little red hen and you had to do all the work yourself?
Moral lesson that were in the story The Little Red Hen are:
- Work hard – The hen was not afraid of hard work even if none of the other animals on the farm would help her. She knew that her labor would pay off in the end and did not hesitate to get started. Students will learn how important it is work hard and that it has it's reward.
- Self reliance – The Little Red Hen could not relay on the other animals to help her with the process of planting, cutting and preparing the wheat to cook. When the other farm animals refused to help she just went ahead and did all the work on her own. Teaching student to be self reliance that is important for young people to learn.
- Persistence – At every stage of the project, the Little Red Hen didn’t give up. Even though she didn’t have any help and the work was hard, her persistence and perseverance paid off in the end.
- Rewards – Of course the most practical lesson is that the initiative and hard work paid great rewards in the end. The Little Red Hen had some delicious bread to eat and share with her family while the other animals had nothing.
E-book- The Little Red Hen
ReplyDeleteThe Little Red Hen was about four characters: The Little Red Hen, the Lazy Dog, the Sleeping Cat, and the Noisy Duck. All throughout the story, the Little Red Hen was going to make bread and was asking who would help her make it. There wasn’t one time when the dog, the cat, and the duck were going to help her but to eat it when she was finished. This e-story reminds me of story The Boy Who Cried Wolf & The Ant and the Grasshopper. In the Boy Who Cried Wolf, the boy was saying there was a wolf and people came running to see if there really was a wolf, but there wasn’t. The boy did this many times to trick the people. When there really was a wolf, the people didn’t believe him because they thought they were being tricked again and the boy died.
In The Ant and the Grasshopper, the Ant was working hard all summer long to gather food because he knew having the luxury of gather food was limited. He warned the Grasshopper of this, but the Grasshopper didn’t want to listen. So at the end, the winter came and the Grasshopper was left in the dust because he didn’t listen to the warning of the Ant. These three stories all have good morals. The Ant and the Grasshopper teaches you to do things when you have the chance to do them or it will be too late. The Boy Who Cried Wolf teaches that lying can lead to bad consequences. It also teaches consistency because when the boy was finally telling the truth, he got no help because of his inconsistency. In The Little Red Hen, it teaches you that taking advantage of people is wrong. It would have been one thing if the hen made the bread and not asked her friends to help, and then invited them over. But she asked them consistently and they refused to help. But they wanted to take advantage of her when the bread was finished and all the hard work was done. That’s why it isn’t right to take advantage of people. Helping is a good thing and it will come back to reward you positively.
I have noticed there are a lot of versions of this folktale,The Little Red Hen. It has been passed down through generations, telling the story of the little red hen that works hard for her bread. At each stage of the bread making, from planting to baking, she asks for help from the other farm animals. But when no one offers to help, the little red hen does the work herself. Of course, after the bread is baked, all of the farm animals offer to help the little red hen eat the bread; but since they did not help in the making, they do not get to help in the eating. When I was reading this book, I can tell that there are a lot of morals such as, be a hard work and don't give up, be nice to others because in the end you will be rewarded. These lessons are positive for students social and emotional development because they become balanced in character when they use these same lessons I would do a read aloud with my students or have them read the story in groups and let them tell me what happened in their own words. In addition, a homework assignment I could have the class do is somewhat similar to the Mind's Eye Assignment, I did in Children's Literature. I would have my students write and illustrate a similar moral, to engage into their creative side.This book would be a good read for 3rd graders.
ReplyDeleteBloom's Questions
Who are the animals in the story?
What do you think the moral of the story is?
Should the little red hen have given those who did not help a piece of her bread? Would she continue to make bread for others if no one helped?
The Little Red Hen is a book I would have in my classroom. There are a lot of lesson you can teach kids from reading this book. The book is about a Hen that wants to plant wheat and make bread but none of her friends will help her. She asks everyone on the farm but they everybody says no. Now when it time to eat the bread that the Hen made everyone wants to be her friend and eat the bread she made. Hen knew that it wasn't right of them to say they would eat her bread so she politely said I think I'll eat the bread with my chicks instead. Now younger kids always have problems with making friends and interacting with them at school. With this book you can teach them that whatever you do you should always be kind to people because you'll never know when you might need them.
ReplyDeleteLindsey brings up some very good points when it comes to the moral lessons that are presented in the book. Persistence is very good point you made, no matter how many times Hen got rejected she always asked if anybody wanted to help or join her with the task at hand.
I would love to have this book in my classroom because children meet new people everyday and when they are young they think that everybody is their friend. A true friend would help you when in need. I agree with Lindsey in saying that the Hen was very persistant and never gave up even though nobody wanted to help her make her bread. This book would teach the students to always treat people how you would want to be treated because you never know who you will need. After the other animals didn't want to help her make the bread after she kept asking them they wanted to help her eat it.
ReplyDelete