The Little Red Hen

Name: The Little Red Hen
Author: Paul Galdone

A story that explores responsibility and opens a conversation with your child.

★★★★★ Loved by families

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♥ This book teaches: Responsibility. owning your choices and their consequences.

Before, During & After Reading

Guiding Questions for Parents.

Definition: doing what needs to be done without complaining. In short: Do what needs to be done. Summary: “The Little Red Hen” is a classic children’s story about responsibility. The Little Red Hen shares a home with some lazy animals, a dog, a cat, and a mouse. When she finds some scattered grains, the hen decides to plant the seeds, grow the wheat, and make flour to bake a cake. She asks her housemates to help her, but they refuse, so she does everything herself. The sweet-smelling cake looks so good, the dog, cat, and mouse want to help her eat it. Too bad! She teaches them a lesson about responsibility - if you don’t help out, you don’t get to enjoy the fruits of labor. She finishes the cake herself, and after that, her disgruntled but wiser housemates pitch in - they learn to be responsible. Lesson Objectives:

Students demonstrate more willingness to help out at school and at home.
Teachers can guide students to dramatize this charming story. They can take turns acting out different parts, and even make up new, similar stories using other animals, and act them out.

Guiding Questions:

Who lives with the Little Red Hen?
Who does all the work around the house? What do the other animals do all day long?
What kind of housework does the Little Red Hen do?
Why didn’t the other animals want to help the Little Red Hen?
To bake a cake, there’s a lot of work to do. What did the Little Red Hen have to do before she could put the cake in the oven? Bonus - See if you can remember all the steps from start to finish (when the cake was done)!
If you were the Little Red Hen would you have shared the cake with your lazy housemates or not? Why?
Did the animals change their behavior after they were not invited to eat the cake? How?
Do your parents need your help at home? If so, how do you help them?
Does your teacher need your help? If so, how do you help in the classroom?
Do your friends need your help sometimes? If so, how do you help them?

🌿 Virtue Connection: Responsibility means owning what is yours, including your choices.

About the Story.

This guide is part of the Values & Virtues library, a free collection of 400+ book guides and activities organized around 12 core virtues for children from pre-K to 6th grade. Each guide includes Guiding Questions designed to open a real conversation with your child in 10 minutes or less.

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Responsibility · Family Discussion Guide

The Little Red Hen

by Paul Galdone

Guiding Questions

Students demonstrate more willingness to help out at school and at home.
Teachers can guide students to dramatize this charming story. They can take turns acting out different parts, and even make up new, similar stories using other animals, and act them out.

Guiding Questions:

Who lives with the Little Red Hen?
Who does all the work around the house? What do the other animals do all day long?
What kind of housework does the Little Red Hen do?
Why didn’t the other animals want to help the Little Red Hen?
To bake a cake, there’s a lot of work to do. What did the Little Red Hen have to do before she could put the cake in the oven? Bonus - See if you can remember all the steps from start to finish (when the cake was done)!
If you were the Little Red Hen would you have shared the cake with your lazy housemates or not? Why?
Did the animals change their behavior after they were not invited to eat the cake? How?
Do your parents need your help at home? If so, how do you help them?
Does your teacher need your help? If so, how do you help in the classroom?
Do your friends need your help sometimes? If so, how do you help them?

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The Little Red Hen

Guiding Questions for Parents.

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Guiding Questions