Storybook: The Little Red Hen
Lesson Plans
The following lesson plans have been developed for the project teachers
to try out some strategies and activities to enhance young children’s
interest and skills in learning English. The storybook “The Little Red
Hen” is used as the organizing focus of the English learning experiences
during the tryout. The story not only provides children with pleasurable
learning experiences but also serves as a springboard to the development
of reading strategies, phonological awareness, and other components of
language learning such as thinking skills and reference skills.
Teachers may use these plans as a reference for the teaching procedures
in shared reading. The number of sessions for each storybook and design
of follow-up activities should be decided as appropriate.
Session 1 Teaching Procedures
Introduction and Activities in this part include playing a
warm-up game, talking, reading, writing and making
word trees.
Play a Kim’s game with the children. Show
them the picture of a farm from any Picture
Word Book for 30 seconds and make them
name the farm animals they can see.
Remind them that they have compiled
some word books when they were reading
“The Gingerbread Man”. Suggest that they
can include these farm animals in their
word books about “animals”.
Reading a new story Display the cover of the big book “The
Little Red Hen”. Have children look at the
illustrations on the cover. To help them use
picture clues, you may ask: What is this
place? Is it in the town or the countryside?
What is this animal? What is it doing?
Provide practice in making predictions by
asking: Can you see a house? Who lives
there? What is this story about? Use
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children’s predictions to set a purpose for
reading.
Invite some children to point to the title.
Encourage them to read aloud the title.
Teacher reads the title again, tracking each
word and using natural intonation and
pace. Ask children to echo read the title.
Take the children on a picture walk
through the story until p.13. Teacher may
ask: What animals are there? Where are
they? What are they doing?
Read the story aloud until p.13, tracking
each word as you read and using natural
intonation and pace. Ask questions to
involve the children in the reading process.
You might make the following
observation: Are children able to follow
along with you? Do children enjoy
listening to this story?
Activities Put pictures of the four animals from the
story on the blackboard. Put the word
cards (a hen, a duck, a cat, a dog) next to
the pictures.
Beginning with “a hen”, show children
how to use appropriate adjectives to
describe the hen in the story. Introduce the
3 adjectives one by one and in the right
sequence i.e. “a red hen”, “a little red hen”,
“a busy little red hen”. Arrange the three
expressions on the board with the word
“hen” in the same position vertically. Go
over the pronunciation with them. Then
teach them how to read each expression
with proper rhythm and intonation.
Make children frame the adjectives used to
describe the other three animals on p.3.
Use gestures and picture cues to explain the
meaning of “lazy”. Encourage them to refer
to picture cues and use more adjectives to
describe these three animals, e.g. a duck, a
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lazy duck, a lazy white duck, a lazy big
white duck; a dog, a brown dog, a fat brown
dog, a lazy fat brown dog; a cat, a brown cat,
a pretty brown cat, a lazy pretty brown cat.
Go over the pronunciation with them. Teach
them how to read the whole expression with
proper rhythm and intonation.
Distribute worksheets to let children record
what they have just practised in groups.
Encourage children to practise how to
describe the animals in their group or own
word books on “animals”.
Focus reading practice for p.2 and p.3.
Emphasize on reading p.3 with proper
intonation.
Write the word “hen” on the board. Invite
the children to read the word. Cover the
letters “en” and make the children read the
initial sounds in “hen”. Underline the first
letter and invite them to find another word
which begins with the same letter sound on
p.4 (help).
Tell children to develop their group’s word
tree on initial h. Put “hen” on the tree trunk.
Put “help” on an apple to be the first word
on the word tree. Invite children to look up
other English books to find more words with
the same letter sound to add to their word
trees.
Frame n in “not” and invite children to read
the letter sound. With the same procedures
as initial h, tell children to make another
word tree for the initial n sound as in “not”.
With the same procedure, teach children to
make one more word tree on the ending m
sound as in “farm”. Demonstrate how the
two lips should be closed to produce the
ending m sound properly.
Call children’s attention to the point that
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there are two groups of words with the
ending m sound as in “farm” and “time”.
As they end in different spelling, they do not
belong to the same group.
Rereading the story Distribute the small books to the children.
and assigning home Call their attention to the title of the book.
activities Let children listen to the story tape on “The
Little Red Hen” or read the story aloud until
p.13, tracking each word and using natural
intonation and pace. Encourage them to
chime in at any part of the story. Emphasize
the importance in the use of gestures, tone
and expressions in reading.
Encourage children to bring the books home
and read the title and the story until p.13 to
their family or themselves.
Distribute worksheets and teach them how
to write about two animals before the next
lesson. Demonstrate to children how to
describe the animals in their own word
books on animals.
Distribute the worksheets on the word trains
for the initial h, n and ending m.
Demonstrate to children how they can make
their own word trains at home with the
experience of making word trees in the
school. Tell them to enter the words from
the story book first and then look up their
own collection of English books e.g. their
old coursebooks or Children’s Picture Word
Books to find at least 5 more items to add to
their group’s word trees before the next
lesson.
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Storybook: The Little Red Hen
Session 2 Teaching Procedures
Introduction and Activities in this part include reading,
warm-up discussing, singing songs, making word
trees, playing a game and role-playing.
Display the big book cover and invite
volunteers to read the title. Let the whole
class read the title together afterwards.
Invite children to share their word trains
with the whole class.
Invite some children to come out and show
their word books on animals to the whole
class. In turns they read aloud the
descriptions from the worksheets. The
whole class look at the drawings/cutouts,
listen to the descriptions and decide which
animals is being described.
Reading the story Read the story aloud up to p.13, tracking
each word as you read and using natural
intonation and pace. Encourage the children
to chime in whenever they can. Pause at
different places from p.2 to p.11 to ask
questions to help the children understand
the story better.
Call children’s attention to the use of the
phrase “Once upon a time” at the beginning
of a story. Ask them if they have come
across the same phrase in other stories e.g.
“The Gingerbread Man”.
Point out the use of open and close
quotation marks on p.4 and p.5. They are
used in stories when people are speaking to
one another. Help children find out who is
talking, using the punctuation marks as
cues.
Explain the meaning of the question
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beginning with “Who will” with gestures.
Show children pictures of some wheat
seeds, wheat, flour and bread from a Picture
Word Book. Use gestures to explain the
meaning of “plant this wheat”, “cut the
wheat”, “make the flour” and “make the
bread”.
Put speech bubbles in the big book to
explain when characters are talking. Point
out the use of question marks and
exclamation marks. Teach children the use
of appropriate intonation when reading
sentences that end with these punctuation
marks.
Invite four volunteers to take part in a role-
play activity. Let them put on the animals’
hats to role play the hen, the duck, the cat
and the dog.
Read the story once through from p.4 to
p.10. The four children will say the parts of
the four animals. The teacher and the whole
class will be the narrator. Emphasize the
importance of the use of appropriate
gestures, tones and expressions in reading
and speaking.
Distribute one set of “animal hats” to each
group and ask children to label them first.
Let children do the role-play in small
groups. Make them pay special attention to
the use of gestures, tones and expressions
when speaking.
Activities Play the tape of the song “London Bridge is
falling down” to the children.
Tell children to replace the lyrics with the
words from the story and sing the first four
stanzas of the song “Who will help me?”
with gestures.
Have children put on the “animals hats” and
sing the song in groups.
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Distribute the song sheets. Have children
sing the song together with the help of
picture cues.
Write the word “it” on the board and
underline the letter “i”. Ask children to read
the word and then only the short i sound
when the letter “t” is covered. In this way
they experience how to use analogy to
identify the target letter sound.
Invite children to turn to p. 3 and find other
words with the same vowel sound. Tell
them to look for words with the letter “i”.
Based on what they suggest, write the
words “lived” and “with” on the board and
underline the letter “i”.
Tell the children that they can put all these
words together and develop a class word
tree for the short i sound.
Put “it” on the tree trunk. Invite children to
find other words with the same letter sound
on p.4 to put on the word tree. The other
words are “will”, “little” and “did”.
Using the same procedure, let them develop
another class word tree on the short e sound
as in “red”. Other words from the same
storybook are “help”, “hen” and “end”.
Distribute one set of phonics game to each
group. Explain the rules and show the
children how to play the game in groups.
Rereading the story Read the story aloud up to p.13 and
and assigning home encourage children to chime in whenever
activities they can.
Encourage children to sing the song and
read the story up to p.13 to their family or
to themselves.
Distribute worksheets to the children and
tell them to make their own word trains at
home for the two vowel sounds they have
practised at school today. Tell children to
use the words from the storybook before
they look up their own collection of English
books e.g. their old textbooks or Children’s
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Picture Word Books to find as many items
as possible before the next lesson.
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Storybook: The Little Red Hen
Session 3 Teaching Procedures
Introduction and Activities in this part include singing,
warm-up reading, discussing, role-playing and
making small books.
Invite volunteers to share their word trains
with the whole class.
Display the cover of the storybook and
invite volunteers to read the title. Let the
whole class read the title together
afterwards.
Reading the story Read the story aloud up to p.13, tracking
each word as you read and using
appropriate intonation. Encourage the
children to chime in whenever they can.
Ask children about the story that explains
the four steps for making bread and list
them on the board. Ask: How can the duck,
the cat and the dog help the Little Red
Hen? What does she say to them?
Frame or circle the question “Who will
help me plant the seeds?” in the big book
and then cover “Who will help me”. Tell
children that “plant the seed” is the first
step in making bread. Let children find
descriptions of the other steps in the same
way.
Go over the pronunciation with them.
Teach them how to read the whole
expressions with proper rhythm and
intonation.
Turn to p.14 and let children talk about the
4 steps with the picture cues only.
Ask children how the story ends. Turn to
p.12 and ask: What is Little Red Hen
holding? Where did she get it from? Point
to the oven and ask: What is this? Can you
remember? You have learnt it in the story
“The Gingerbread Man’? What is ready?
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How do the animals look? How do you
know that? Why are they so happy? What
do they all want to eat? What does Little
Red Hen think? What will she do? Ask
children to predict the ending of the story.
Turn to p.14, make the children look at the
pictures carefully and ask: Will Little Red
Hen give the bread to the three lazy
animals? Why? How do you know that?
Invite children to read aloud the sentence
together.
Assign different groups to read the parts
for the narrator, the hen, the duck, the cat
and the dog. Read the story once through
together.
Let them practise in groups afterwards.
Tell them to pay special attention to the use
of gestures, tone and expression in
speaking and reading.
Activities Distribute worksheets to the children. Tell
them to compile a book on “Making
bread”. They can write their own names on
the cover. This shows they have written the
book themselves.
Explain that they should first arrange the
order of the pictures to show the four steps
for making bread. Then they write a
sentence under each picture to describe
each step. Afterwards they can list the
ingredients for bread on the last page.
Show the pupils a sample book on
“Making bread”. Tell them that they have
to design a cover for their own book.
Let children find out more about the
ingredients for bread. You may say: Is
there only flour in bread? What does Little
Red Hen put with the flour and mix
together? Let’s turn to p.11. Can you find
it from the picture there? Put the different
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ingredients on the blackboard and go over
the pronunciation with them.
Distribute some authentic wrapping paper
or plastic bags for bread. Let children find
out that there are different ingredients in
different kinds of bread.
Tell children to sing the first four stanzas
of the song “Who will help me?” together.
Have them refer to the song sheets and
sing the last two stanzas together with
gestures.
Rereading the story Play the tape of “The Little Red Hen” and
and assigning home encourage children to chime in whenever
activities they can. You might make the following
observation: Are children interested in
joining in? Who seems to have problems in
trying to follow the story?
Let children sing the song “Who will help
me?” a few times together.
Encourage children to read the story aloud
and sing the song a few times to their
family or to themselves at home.
Distribute worksheets and ask children to
make the mini books on “Making bread” at
home. They may examine some authentic
bags or wrapping paper to find out the
ingredients for different bread.
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Storybook: The Little Red Hen
Session 4 Teaching Procedures
Introduction and Activities in this part include reading,
warm-up talking, singing, role playing, writing,
acting and making small books.
Invite volunteers to share their books on
“Making bread”.
Reading the story Read aloud the story, tracking each word
as you read and using natural intonation
and pace. Encourage the children to chime
in whenever they can.
Check if children remember the story
content. You may ask: How does the Little
Red Hen make bread? What are the 4
steps? List the 4 steps on the board after
children have answered the questions.
Then ask: What does the Little Red Hen do
in the end? Why?
Invite four volunteers to play the parts of
the four animals. The teacher and the rest
of the class act as the narrator. Distribute
paper hats to the 3 pupils playing the parts
of the lazy animals and an apron to the
pupils playing the part of Little Red Hen.
Activities Play the tape of the song “Old MacDonald
had a farm” and invite the children to sing
together.
Call their attention to the animal sounds.
Put the words on the blackboard and go
over the pronunciation with them.
Ask children to sing the song once
together. Distribute song sheets and let
them sing together once again.
Read the story once through. Make
children add the animals’ sounds after each
animal has said “Not I!” and “I will”
e.g. “Not I! Quack, quack!” said the duck.
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Distribute paper hats and aprons to each
group. Invite the children to work in
groups and act out the whole story wearing
the paper hats and aprons.
Show them the picture of a dish of fruit
salad. Ask children what fruit is used to
make fruit salad.
Ask them to suggest how fruit salad is
made. Put the pictures and word cards for
the following steps on the blackboard:
“Wash the apples.” (and other fruit), “Cut
the apples.” (and other fruit), “Mix the
fruit.” and “Eat the fruit salad.”
Distribute materials for the game “Making
fruit salad”. Children work in groups. They
pretend to wash/cut/mix some fruit to make
some fruit salad. The cut fruit items are
stuck on a paper bowl.
Distribute some worksheets and ask pupils
to rewrite the story “The Little Red Hen”
in groups. They can choose the animals
they like but the food they make is fruit
salad this time.
Encourage them to include the picture of
the fruit salad in their storybook. Explain
that this makes their storybook more
attractive and helps the readers understand
the story better.
Tell children that each group should design
a book cover and give a name to their
group storybook. All group members’
names are put on the cover as authors.
Invite volunteers to read their own books to
the whole class. Display the books in the
classroom afterwards.
Encourage them to read storybooks written
by the other groups.
Sharing time and Invite children to read aloud the whole
suggesting follow-up story together. Assign children to play
work different roles in the story.
List the different activities on “The Little
Red Hen” and ask children which activity
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they liked most.
Encourage children to sing the song, read
the story and act out any part of the story
whenever there is a suitable chance.
Encourage children to write stories on how
some food is made. They can also follow
the story line of “The Little Red Hen” but
use a new ending.
Prepare a set of storybooks with similar
themes and language items. Encourage
children to borrow these storybooks from
the class library to read at home.
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