Fairy tales are some of my favorite stories to share with young children. These classic stories are a great way to spark a love of reading and story telling. Use these Little Red Hen character headbands to retell the story of the Little Red Hen in a fun way.
The Little Red Hen
Hen finds seeds and asks her friends to help her plant them. They all say, “Not I” because they are busy. Next, Hen needs to pick the wheat. She asks for help from her friends. They all respond with “Not I”. Then, she needs help grinding the wheat into flour to make bread. “Not I”, all the friends say. Finally, she asks for help with making the bread. Again, her friends are too busy to help. When the smell of delicious bread make its way over to where the friends are, they all come running for a piece of bread and say, “I’ll share the bread with you, Hen!” But she tells them “No”. They didn’t help her make the bread and she did all the work herself so she will eat it herself too.
Different versions of this story include different characters and different endings. The ending with Hen not sharing the bread always sparks an interesting conversation with the children about whether they think her not sharing is ok.
Using the Headbands
Use the headbands in partner plays or while you perform a reader’s theatre. Wear the fun headbands in a retelling of the story or during a family storytime. Put on a small class play for another class. There are so many ways to use the headbands to make this familiar tale come to life.
Assemble the Character Headbands
- Print the page.
- Color the character.
- Cut strips of construction paper or use a sentence strip to attach to the headband and fit to the size of each child’s head. You may want each character to have a different colored strip such as duck has yellow construction paper, pig uses pink paper, etc. It makes it easier to identify the characters quickly.
- Use glue sticks, tape, or a stapler to connect the strips to the headband.
Main Characters
In this printable pack of character headbands, you will find all of the main and supporting characters of the story.
- hen
- cat
- dog
- duck
- pig
For older students, reading parts of reader’s theater scripts while wearing the character headbands is a fun experience and great for fluency skills too.
Story Props
Use story props to bring your story to life. Here are a few simple props that can be used or made.
Seeds – Use pony beads to represent seeds if you don’t have a packet of real seeds on hand.
Wheat Props – Make wheat from construction paper or buy a bundle of it at the craft store.
Molcajete – Use a molcajete to pretend to grind the wheat or use a rock to pretend to grind it on a table.
Rolling Pin – Bring one from home or make one out of a paper towel tube.
Loaf of Bread – Bring a real loaf of bread to school or make one out of a small box.
Download the Little Red Hen Characters Headbands
Head over to The Barefoot Teacher to download a Little Red Hen Emergent Reader.
Little Red Hen Reader’s Theater from Wise Owl Factory.
Little Red Hen Preschool Printables from Free Preschool Printables
Resources for Other Familiar Tales
Three Little Pigs Finger Puppets
The Three Little Pigs Alphabet Matching Activity