The Little Red Hen- Folk Literature

The Little Red Hen by Joseph Jacobs is a great short story because there are many lessons that can be pulled from it.   This story is about a little red hen that asked a duck, cat and dog to help her plant a grain of wheat, but they all refuse.  Next, she asks for help cutting the wheat and threshing the wheat, but again they all say no.  Then, the little red hen ask “Who will help me take the wheat to the mill to have it ground into flour?” but all three say no once again. Lastly, the hen ask if they will help her make the flour into bread, but like before they all deny her.  Despite all the no’s she has gotten so far the little red hen ask “Who will help me eat the bread?” and to no surprise they all say YES, but do you want to know what that little red hen said?  She said “Oh no you won’t!” and she fed the bread to her little chicks.  Although this is a short story it has a very important message in it that I think many students, especially at young ages have a hard time with.  This story shows that it is important to help others when they need it because you never know when you will need help in return, it also show that you have to work for your earnings and that not everything in life is going to be handed to you.  The dog, cat and duck all refused to help make the bread, but in the end they all wanted to eat some even though it was not theirs.  In my classroom I would read this to the younger children because it is short so it will keep their attention span and it would be a great way to introduce classroom rules.  For example I want one of my classroom rules to be to help others and work as a team, I would explain to them how the dog, cat and duck were not being good team members so in the end they were not very happy, but if they had all helped out they would have each gotten a piece of the bread like they wanted!  This would be a good story to read before a group project so that students understand the importance of teamwork and participation in the group.  Another good activity for students would be for them to come up with a short skit about it, but instead of following it exactly have them fix it in a way that would show better team work!