HMH Storytown 2009Grade 1

Theme 3 /Lesson 7

Title of Read Aloud: The Little Red Hen

Suggested Time:2 days (30 minutes per day)

Common Core ELA Standards:

RL.1.1; RL.1.3;RL.1.4; RL.1.9;SL.1.1c; SL.1.2; W.1.2

Teacher Instructions

Refer to the Introduction forfurther details.

Before Teaching

  1. Read the Big Ideas and Key Understandings and theSynopsis. Please do not read this to the students. This is a description for teachers, about the big ideas and key understanding that students should take away after completing this task.

Big Ideas and Key Understandings

This tale highlights the value of cooperation and the rewards of hard work.

Synopsis

The story is about a little red hen that plants, cuts, grinds and bakes wheat to make bread. Her farm friends won’t help her do any of the work, but they want to share her delicious bread.

  1. Read entire main selection text, keeping in mind the Big Ideas and Key Understandings.
  2. Re-read the main selection text while noting the stopping points for the Text Dependent Questions and teaching Vocabulary.

During Teaching

  1. Teacher reads the main selection text aloud.

2. Teacher re-reads the selection aloud while stopping to engage students in responding to and discussing the questions and returning to the text. A variety of methods can be used to structure the reading and discussion (i.e.: whole class discussion, think-pair-share, group work, etc.)

Text Dependent Questions

Text Dependent Questions / Answers
Listen as I read the first paragraph, describe the setting. (p. 28) / The story takes place in a little house on a hill looking out toward the mountains.
What five friends lived in the house? (Pg. 28) / The five friends that lived in the house were the cat, the dog, the mouse, the pig, and the little red hen.
Listen to me reread the second paragraph on page 28, “The cat liked to curl up and nap on the feather bed all day. The dog liked to sleep on the sunny front porch. The mouse liked to spend her time in the corner of their kitchen. The pig liked to do anything she wanted.” How would you describe these characters? / These characters in the storyare lazy, do what they want (self-centered), are not helpful, and are not very good friends to the Little Red Hen.
How would you describe the Little Red Hen? (pg. 28) / The Little Red Hen is hard working.
The story says, “Little Red Hen was left to do everything.” What work did Little Red Hen do? (Pg. 28) / The little red hen had to cook, wash, sweep, rake leaves, and mow grass.
In the first paragraph, the author mentions a cozy little house. Cozy means comfortable. Using evidence from the text, what is a cozy spot for cat, dog and mouse? (Pg. 28) / The story says, “the cat liked to curl up and nap on the feather bed all day, the dog liked to sleep on the sunny front porch, and the mouse liked to spend her time in the corner of the kitchen”. This suggests where the characters are most comfortable.
We described the Little Red Hen as hard working. What did the Little Red Hen have to do to the wheat before she made the bread? (Pg. 28-30) / The Little Red Hen had to:
  • Plant the grains of wheat in a garden.
  • Water the wheat so it would grow into a plant.
  • Cut (harvest) the wheat then ground it into flour.
  • Bake it into bread.

Why does little red hen do all the work herself? (Pg. 28-30) / Little Red Hen does the work herself because cat, dog, mouse and pig say, “Not I”, after she asks for help and because she knows that hard work pays off in the end. She had a goal….She was determined to see the job through…
Just like the grains of wheat changed, how do the characters change from the beginning to the end of the story? (Pg. 28-31) / In the beginning, the characters did not want to help. They were lazy. At the end of the story they agreed to help.
On page 31, the text reads “in a loud chorus they said, ‘I will!” Chorus means saying something together. Why did the characters say I will? / The characters all want eat the bread.
At the end of the story, what word does the author use to suggest the characters are upset? (Pg. 31) / The author says, “the cat, the dog, the mouse, and the pig were very disappointed.”
KEY WORDS ESSENTIAL TO UNDERSTANDING
BIG IDEAS OF TEXT
Words addressed with a question or task / WORDS WORTH KNOWING
Words to be part of systematic vocabulary instruction, not essential for understanding the big ideas of the text
TEACHER PROVIDES DEFINITION
not enough contextual clues provided in the text / Page 29- harvest
Page 31- chorus / Page 28- mended
Page 28- cozy
Page 28- “looked out toward the mountains”
Page 30- ingredients
Page 30- mill
Page 30- flour
Page 30- “ground into flour”
Page 30- “kneaded the dough”
Page 30- “let it rise”
Page 31 - shoved
Page 31- “mouths watering
STUDENTS FIGURE OUT THE MEANING
sufficient context clues are provided in the text / Page31-lazy
Page 31-disappointed / Page 28- mowed
Page 28- raked
Page 28- “grains of wheat”
Page 31- odor
Page31- golden bread
Page 31- chores

Culminating Task RL.1.9; W.1.2

Re-Read, Think, Discuss, And Write.

This is the beginning of practicing a compare and contrast skill. The students can fill in a writing prompt using the following:

  • The animals are like the Little Red Hen because they like ______. (to eat the bread)
  • The animals are not like the Little Red Hen because they will not ______. (do work)
  • Little Red Hen does the work because she ______. ( knows the work will pay off with a delicious loaf of bread)

Additional Tasks

Students can draw or write types of chores they could do at home.

Note to Teacher

Expect students to respond with complete sentences. Model and scaffold responses with sentence starters as needed. Also, expand on student responses (when responses are short and easily expanded) and have students repeat the expanded answer.

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