Help students connect with text, think ahead, and become more engaged.

• When you are hungry, what is your favorite food to eat?
• Have you ever made homemade pizza?
• What ingredients do you need to make pizza?
• Tell about the last time you helped your mom or dad around the house? Did you want to help them? Explain why or why not.

Predict where the Little Red Hen will go shopping. This will help the student to read and understand some unfamiliar words such as hardware store, supermarket, and delicatessen.

• Where will the Little Red Hen go to buy a pizza pan? 
• Where will the Little Red Hen go to buy flour? 
• Where will the Little Red Hen go to buy mozzarella cheese?

Predict how the duck, dog, and cat will respond each time the Little Red Hen asks for help.

• Who will help me make the pizza dough?  
• Would anybody like some pizza?  
• Who will help me do the dishes?

Sometimes long words can be tricky to read, but we can make them easier by looking for smaller word parts inside them! We can break the word into chunks we already know, like smaller words or word beginnings and endings.

Let’s try this with some words from The Little Red Hen:

• Chickweed — Look for the small words "chick" and "weed." When we put them together, we get "chickweed!" 
• Hardware — Break it into "hard" and "ware." That makes reading it easier. 
• Cupboard — It looks tricky, but if we split it into "cup" and "board," we can figure it out. 
• Afternoon — Look for "after" and "noon." Now it makes sense. 
• Myself — This word has two parts: "my" and "self." When we put them together, we get "myself!" 
• Anybody — Look for "any," "body." That helps us read it smoothly. 
• Eggplant — Split it into "egg" and "plant." Now it’s easy to read. 
• Supermarket — Break it into "super" and "market." That helps us say it correctly.

This story provides many opportunities to read phrases that ask questions, answer questions, and make statements. Model the strategy for reading the Little Red Hen’s questions, explaining how your voice tone changes as you read a question. Then model the answers that the duck, dog, and cat give including the tone of voice each might use to answer the question. Be sure to point out the enthusiasm the animals show in their voice when they agree to eat pizza and clean up the kitchen. Finally, model both the Little Red Hen’s greetings and her reaction to the animals’ answers. These include the following comments:

very well then, good morning, excuse me, good evening, and hello

Possbile words: spied, kneaded, rummaged, fetch, and delicatessen