The Little Red Hen and The Little Red Hen (Makes a Pizza) Compare and Contrast Freebie

The Little Red Hen has always been one of my favorite stories to teach students hard work and helping others and is a fun unit for the spring when you can plant with your students! I love sharing this story with my students and then move on to do a compare and contract activity with the story. 

The Little Red Hen

I love reading the story The Little Red Hen in the spring with my students.  I work on this story for a full week with my students.  

Students enjoyed reading and coloring their own little emergent reader.  

We did sequencing and retelling activities and really became familiar with the story.

Students created their own little flip book with vocabulary from the story and labeled a picture which is a great phonics activity where they can listen for beginning and ending sounds.  

We did a little writing activity where students drew themselves and added their own name to the sentence frame, "I will help the Little Red Hen, said ____."  This is a fun sheet to save to create a class book.  They also practice reading and copying sentences.  

As well as some Little Red Hen themed math/ number sentence activities.  

And finally some fun extras, such as a story elements graphic organizers, a word search, rhyming and a sort of events from the story and things that do not belong. 

Compared and Contrast with the Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza

Once we were very familiar of the story of the Little Red Hen, we moved on to The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza.  I recently discovered the story and absolutely love it.  In this adorable version of the story, the Little Red Hen wants to make a pizza and needs items to make her pizza.  

The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza (affiliate link)

I was so happy to share this version of the Little Red Hen with my students and thought it was a great story to practice compare and contrasting.  This has always been a difficult skill for my students and since it is a higher level skill, I have been trying to focus on developing comparing and contrasting with my students.  

I then moved on to introducing the story The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza and comparing and contrasting these stories.  As a group we talked about how these stories are the same and different.  We discussed the beginning, endings, characters and other story elements.  As a follow up activity, I had students complete their own Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting these two stories.  (This activity is a freebie at the end of the blog post)

For this activity you can use preselected pictures like above or if your students are more capable, they can write or draw how these stories are similar and different in their own Venn Diagram or use the preselected pictures.  

You can grab The Little Red Hen sequencing activity, retelling and all of the other The Little Red Hen activities from my easy prep sub plans in my TPT store or by clicking on the link. 

The compare and contrast activity is a freebie in my TPT store that you can grab here:

 

Student Goal Setting in an Elementary Classroom

Student goal setting is such a great way to encourage your students and for students to take ownership of their learning.  While student goal setting in a kindergarten or first grade classroom can be a little more difficult, your students will get so excited and involved in their learning if done. I have created these free and simple goal setting sheets that are simple and student friendly for an elementary classroom.  

Students can write their own reading and math goals on these simple sheets.  I have included a "by" section so they can begin learning that it takes practice to reach these goals.

This can help students to pick a grade level or attainable goal for themselves and then a means to achieve their goal.  (These are all free at the end of the post)

I have also included a version without the "by" that is one page for reading and math.

In your classroom, you can have students pick goals by having discussions of what they will be learning in kindergarten.  Maybe a students goal is to count to 100, learn all of their letter sounds or learn 60 sight words.  
I like to use my simple kindergarten goal sheet to help students write these goals.  These are goal setting sheets that we use in my classroom all year so goals are communicate with both students and parents.  

They are student friendly and the images help students see what is expected of them in kindergarten.  
If you would like a graphic version of all standards with all pictures to use with students or parents, I also have those available.

These forms and handout are a great resource for parents teacher conferences. You can talk with students and parents where students are at and next steps.  
These student I can statements are available for grade K-4 in my TPT store or by clicking on the pictures below. 

       

     

 And be sure to grab the goal setting freebie here!