The Little Red Hen

CCSS 1st Grade English Language Arts Objectives

RL.1.2 - Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of
their central message or lesson.
SL.1.2 Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or
information presented orally or through other media.
Objectives
Students will retell a story across their fingers, including: characters,
beginning, middle, end, and lesson.
Students will identify and explain the lesson of a read aloud text.
Time Estimation: 40 minutes
Introduction 5 minutes
Read Aloud 10 minutes
Guided Practice 10 minutes
Independent Practice 10 minutes
Conclusion 5 minutes

Materials
The Little Red Hen by Paul Galdone
Hen print out
Construction paper feathers
Crayons and Pencils

Introduction
Inform students that today, they will be using a strategy called, retelling across
fingers to retell a story. Introduce the text, The Little Red Hen by Paul Galdone.
Explain that this story tells of some animal characters that learn a lesson. As they
listen to the story, they need to be thinking about the characters, the events of the
story, and the lesson the characters learn at the end.
Read Aloud
Read aloud the text.
Guided Practice
After reading, work with students to verbally retell the story. Model how to retell the
story across your fingers. Holding up one finger at a time, have the class
contribute and help retell the story (characters, beginning, middle, end, and the
final finger for the lesson). While modeling, guide students to also hold up their
fingers and practice retelling the story together.
Questions to ask during the guided practice phase:
Who were the characters in The Little Red Hen?
What happened at the beginning of the story?
What happened next?
What happened at the end of the story?
What lesson did the characters learn?

The Little Red Hen

Independent Practice
Explain that since students have done well retelling the story across their fingers,
they will now create a hen that retells the story. They will each be given an outline
of a hen and 5 construction paper feathers. Just like retelling with their fingers,
each feather will represent a part of the story (characters, beginning, middle, end,
and lesson). They will write down each part of the story, one part on each feather,
glue them onto the rear of the hen, and then color the hen.
Assessment
This is an introductory lesson into theme and central messages. As such, all
assessments will be informal, anecdotal, and/or formative.
Conclusion
Ask students about the retelling of the story. Encourage students to retell a story
across their fingers whenever they read. Remind them that to retell they need to
think about the characters, beginning, middle, and end of a story, as well as the
lesson of the story.

The Little Red Hen