This is an Little Red Riding Hood EFL lesson plan based on the fairy tale that everyone knows. It is for preschool children (about 3-6 years old) and will last about one hour. The lesson plan can also be easily adapted for older age groups. It is a great way to work on teaching vocabulary about likes and dislikes of food and the five senses. There is a fun craft activity to do at the end of the lesson to make puppets of Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf.
For this Red Riding Hood EFL lesson plan, you will need:
- Five senses flashcards – if you don’t have these, you can find some here.
- Plastic toy food – a selection of things you think kids will like and dislike. Alternatively, you could use flashcards.
- cardboard toilet paper rolls – 2 for each child
- paper and colored markers
- ice lolly wooden sticks
- glue, scissors and sticky tape
Songs and videos:
- Five Senses Song by The Kiboomers
- Do You Like Broccoli? by Super Simple Songs
- Walking in the Jungle by Super Simple Songs – we’re going to adapt it to walking in the forest.
- Little Red Riding Hood Kids Story by Dream English
Introduction: Walking in the forest
Start with your normal Hello routine and then tell the kids that today we are going walking in the forest to see what we can see. Draw a picture on the board of a forest and add pictures of a wolf, Red Riding Hood, a woodcutter and Grandma. Adapt the song Walking in the Jungle to become Walking in the Forest and sing it together making the sounds of a wolf howling, a woodcutter chopping, Red Riding Hood singing and Grandma saying hello.
Play a game to learn the names of the characters – Duck Duck Goose!
This is a really fun game and a great way to practice short lists of vocabulary. With the kids sitting in a circle, adapt the game of Duck Duck Goose to the four characters in your story: Red Riding Hood, Grandma, Woodcutter, Wolf. When the child who is It says Wolf, the child who has been tapped has to chase It round the circle.
Tell the story: Little Red Riding Hood
You can tell the story of Little Red Riding Hood by reading aloud from a book, acting out the story with puppets or toys or watching a video like the one by Dream English linked above. If you’re choosing a video, be careful as some of the ones on YouTube are quite scary for little children. You don’t want to give them nightmares!
While you’re telling the story, talk about the food that Little Red Riding Hood might have in her basket and then spend a while when the Wolf and Red Riding Hood are talking about his nose, eyes, etc. Make sure you use lots of TPR and actions to show body parts and the five senses.
Sing a song
Get out your flashcards of the five senses and learn the Five Senses Song. Use TPR and ask the children to complete the sentences, ” I have a nose, I can …” etc. Then put them in pairs and let them do the same thing together. Now get out your plastic food or food flashcards.
Pretend to smell and taste them. Ask the kids, “Do you like salad? Do you like cheese? Do you like spinach?” and have them reply “yes I do” or “no I don’t”. Go around the group and make the kids ask each other the same questions using the food. Now learn the Do You Like Broccoli song and sing it together. Adapt it to use the food you have in class.
Practical Activity: Make Red Riding Hood and Wolf puppets
Using our cardboard roll, we’re going to make two puppets of Red Riding Hood and the Wolf. This is an easy activity that the kids can do pretty much on their own. They just need to color the toilet rolls, one red and one brown. Then they can draw and color the faces of Red Riding Hood and the Wolf on paper and cut them out and glue them to the rolls.
If you want, they could also draw different food that each character would like and stick that on too. So maybe sausages for the wolf and cake for Red Riding Hood. Ask them if they like sausages or they like cake and get them to answer.
Now you need to attach a couple of wooden lolly sticks to each puppet so they can move them. Use sticky tape for this as glue probably won’t be strong enough if they are playing with the puppets.
Act out the story with your puppets
To finish off, act out the story of Little Red Riding Hood with the kids and their puppets. Don’t forget to repeat “What big eyes you have! All the better to see you with” and the other vocabulary that you’ve learned in the lesson. If you’ve got time, sing the Do you like Broccoli song again and let Red Riding Hood and the Wolf reply to the questions.
I hope you enjoy doing this Little Red Riding Hood EFL lesson plan with your class. Let me know how it goes or if you adapt it in different ways. I’d love to see what you’re doing in class. If you want to see my other lesson plans, you can find them here. To stay up to date with news and new lesson plans, you can sign up for email updates below or follow the GoogooEnglish Facebook Page.